This morning, The U.S. Budget Watch Project opened to an enthusiastic audience of hardened Washington deficit hawks.  Such a group would not have turned out for a talk on budget process reform or on another hunt for "fraud, waste, and abuse."  We turned out because of the respect commanded by Leon Panetta, Bill Frenzel, Chuck Bowsher, Rudy Penner, Charlie Stenholm, Jim Kolbe, Gene Steuerle, and Bill Hoagland.  They were brought together in this endeavor by Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.  All are highly respected for their yeoman work these many years to curtail Washington's "addiction to debt."

They announced,  "Washington interest groups usually want more for themselves. Today, one organization will start a crusade to get less."  They will educate the voters to the budgetary peril their children will face unless political leaders take responsibility for the fiscal mess we're in.

They set forth "Twelve Principles for Fiscal Responsibility," a 12-step program for rectifying a budget process that has gone completely off the tracks.

1. Admit that we face serious fiscal problems
2. Elevate the issue of fiscal responsibility
3. Commit to reducing the deficit
4. Suggest solutions to fix Social Security
5. Suggest ways to address rising health care spending
6. Suggest solutions to oustanding tax issues
7. Plan to reform the budget process
8. Use honest numbers
9. Offset the cost of new policies
10. Do not perpetuate budget myths
11. Do not attack someone else's plan (unless you put forth an alternative)
12. The media should do their job

I attended and plan to help anyway I can because I believe educating the public, and particularly younger voters, who tend to vote less frequently than the rest of us, is the main way to break budget gridlock in Washington.