Bowles, Simpson to Discuss Deficits, Debt at Wake Forest

Photo: UNC-Chapel Hill

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who co-chaired the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, are set to speak next month at Wake Forest University.

The pair will participate in the "Voices of Our Time" series, according to The (Triad) Business Journal. The event, set for Wait Chapel, will start at 6 pm on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Bowles and Simpson are expected to discuss the U.S. deficit and the debt crisis.

Bowles is a Democrat who serves as chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, while Simpson is a former Republican Senator from Wyoming. They supervised an ultimately unsuccessful effort to create a bipartisan plan to cut the U.S. deficit. Both have advocated for big tax increases and meaningful spending reductions.

Bowles made media waves recently when a 2011 video surfaced of him praising a deficit-reduction plan by Paul Ryan, the Republican Party's vice president candidate. In the video, posted below, he touts Ryan's "amazing" mathematics skills and praises his financial plan.