Editor, Gazette-Journal:

There is an absolutely stunning bit of legislation that is currently in committee that has zero chance of ever making it out of committee or becoming law. Furthermore, this bill appears to be ignored by the mainstream media as well as the majority within Congress and government.

The title of this much-maligned and ignored bill is the Intergenerational Financial Obligations Reform Act or, as it is its popular title, the Inform Act. This bill is a completely bipartisan initiative introduced and authored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and John Thune (R-S.D.) and has eight co-sponsors, both Democrat and Republican. In addition to its bipartisan legislative support, this bill is supported by 15 Nobel laureates in economics as well as being endorsed by over 1,000 economists from government, industry and academia.

One of the most prominent and vocal supporters of this bill is Professor Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University. Professor Kotlikoff is an ardent supporter of revising the government’s account methods which is a measure included within this bill. Professor Kotlikoff has previously expressed, “Government accounting is fallacious.”

He further added, “Congress and the administration have been keeping the bills off of the books.” Professor Kotlikoff contends the calculations economists use forecasts an $11 trillion deficit. The professor also proclaimed just recently that “the country is in worse shape by many miles than Detroit, so the country is essentially bankrupt.”

A full-page advertisement appeared in the Oct. 22, 2013 edition of the New York Times that contained the names of the Nobel laureates as well as the 1,000+ economists that endorse this legislation. Unfortunately, this advertisement received little attention and was virtually ignored by the mainstream media. This bit of remedial legislation, like the plight of our children and grandchildren posed by the nation’s out-of-control debt, continues to be ignored in spite of the dire consequences that it imposes upon the future of this nation and its people.

As noted by a remarkably courageous man and Christian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children.”

Andrew Maggard

Port Haywood, Va.