ABOUT THE MOVIE
Wake up, United States! The federal government is on the brink of a financial meltdown. I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, the U.S. must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.
Throughout history, the U.S. government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes. Wielding candid interviews with both average U.S. taxpayers and government officials, Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies. The film follows former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining U.S’ unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.
With surgical precision, Creadon interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a vivid and alarming profile of U.S.’ current economic situation. The ultimate power of I.O.U.S.A. is that the film moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how we can recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.
Creadon uses candid interviews and his featured subjects include Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Paul O’Neill, Robert Rubin, and Paul Volcker, along with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s own David Walker and Bob Bixby of the Concord Coalition, a Foundation grantee.
Pointedly topical and consummately nonpartisan, I.O.U.S.A. drives home the message that the only time for U.S.’ financial future is now.
“To the U.S. economy what ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was to the environment.”
– Reuters
“Resolutely non-partisan… a documentary everyone should see.”
– Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
My favorite quotes from I.O.U.S.A. The Movie
Without savings, there is no future. – Alan Greenspan (the father of cheap credit)
The concepts of sacrificing and building for a better tomorrow have been pushed aside by our live for today, easy credit, and consumption oriented society. – Narrator
The only situation that is worse than this [i.e. our national debt], would be a terrorist getting their hands on a nuclear device and using it against us. The national debt issue absolutely guarantees that our children will have less of a quality of life than we’ve had. – Senator Judd Gregg, New Hampshire
