By Marjorie Kirk

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Worsham Theater was filled with laughter and moments of humble silence Wednesday night as the charismatic former Sen. Alan Simpson spoke about fiscal policy and bipartisan politics.

Simpson, who served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming and was a Republican Whip at one time in his career in Congress, focused on the effects that the growing national deficit will have on our generation and why it should inspire us to become politically involved.

“That word — politics — comes from the Greek,” Simpson said. “Politics; poli- meaning many, and -tics, meaning blood-sucking insects.”

Simpson spoke about how organizations like the Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons are dominating the attention of politicians, because they are more organized and better funded, and are fueling the deficit with their expenditures and entitlements instead of giving attention to other issues.

“We borrow half a billion bucks every day; every buck we spend, we borrow 16 cents and we owe $17.8 trillion,” said Simpson. “You young people perk right up out there because you are the ‘skinnies’ and it is our generation, my generation, that did it to you.”

Master of Public Administration graduate student Madison Holbrook, Lt. Gov. Crit Luallen, and President and CEO of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Trey Grayson made up the panel that discussed the unhealthy picture of our country’s fiscal policy described by Simpson.

“It definitely paints somewhat of a bleak picture, but I can’t help but think that this generation has a great opportunity to make some changes on how our government is run,” Holbrook said.

In response to the idea of our opportunities as a generation, Simpson said that to move forward our generation had to stop trying to find who is to blame and search out the correct solutions.

“The money guys will always take care of themselves,” Simpson said. “And there is a way to handle this — get in the game. Don’t just sit and carry a placard and bitch.”

Luallen questioned how young students were going to become interested in joining politics if the only examples they see are of poor cooperation among politicians as she saw in the recent elections.

“People were just turned off,” Luallen said. “The tragedy of that is how do we keep young people engaged and interested when they see that incredible amount of money being spent with confusing and negative messages, and I think in this election what they did was just to say ‘I’m not going to vote.’”

Simpson urged young voters to change the perception that they aren’t passionate about current events.

“It is a very gratifying experience,” Simpson said. “To get in the game and legislate or put together the laws, that was a very pleasant experience to see the results of what you’ve done.”