Les Rubin and Cliff Gephart Launch Rescue America Project to Educate Americans About Growing National Debt Threat

New Public Education Initiative Illustrates How Spending and Debt Hurt All Americans and Encourage Citizens to “Throw the Rope” and Demand Action

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Les Rubin, founder and president of Main Street Economics, and Cliff Gephart have launched the Rescue America Project, a new public education and awareness initiative designed to help Americans understand the growing threat posed by the nation's multi-trillion dollar deficits and resulting debt, and how they can help move Congress to action to fix it.

Through short-form videos, social media, educational materials and traditional media outreach, the Rescue America Project explains the nation's increasingly complicated fiscal problems in understandable terms that will motivate Americans to take action.

“This is not an economics problem that belongs to Washington or Wall Street. It is an American problem, and every American has a stake in solving it,” said Cliff Gephart, co-founder of the Rescue America Project. “Our goal is to take an issue that can seem distant and abstract and make it real, understandable and impossible to ignore.”

The project launches as the national debt surpasses $40 trillion and continues to grow, while interest costs and unfunded obligations place increasing pressure on future generations.

“The problem is that Americans hear numbers like $40 trillion and their eyes glaze over,” said Rubin, who founded Main Street Economics to explain basic economics and the nation's fiscal challenges in language that can be easily understood. “They hear ‘trillion dollars’ and it becomes almost meaningless. We need to show people what these numbers mean for their lives, their families, and their future.”

The Rescue America Project's first video takes a deliberately humorous approach to a very serious problem. In the video, Uncle Sam takes the earnings from a child's lemonade stand while laughing as the child chases after him. There is a lot for Americans to learn about how Washington works, and the consequences of Washington's spending ultimately fall on all of us.

“We wanted to find a way to make a complicated and frightening subject understandable and even entertaining,” Rubin said. “If we can make someone laugh for a moment and then make them think about what they just saw, we have accomplished something.”

Rubin said the project is intended to take the fiscal debate beyond Washington and the world of economists, policymakers and budget experts.

The Rescue America Project website highlights the immediate consequences of the nation's fiscal trajectory, including inflation, rising interest costs, the pressure on Social Security and Medicare, and the growing burden being passed on to future generations. The project also explains how excessive spending and debt is connected to everyday economic issues such as inflation, interest rates, and economic growth.

“We are not lecturing about the economy, politics, and the national debt,” Cliff Gephart continued. “Instead, we are going to show them what it really looks like, what it means and how it affects their lives. Through engaging videos, humor, visual storytelling and compelling real-world examples, we want to make the consequences of Washington’s spending impossible to ignore.”

Rubin said the project is necessary because the American public must first understand how serious the problem is before they will demand it be fixed. Only then will our elected officials have the political support necessary to address it.

“Politicians respond to voters,” Rubin said. “Congress will not make the difficult choices required to solve this problem until the public will support these choices. That will only happen when the public understands just how serious the problem is.”

“We need to reach people where they are, not expect them to come looking through a 200-page budget document or an economics textbook,” Rubin continued. “We need to explain this in a way that a parent, a small-business owner, a retiree or a kid running a lemonade stand will understand, and more importantly, be motivated to take action.”

The project calls on Americans to take an active role in changing the country's fiscal direction through its “Throw the Rope” campaign.

The concept is based on the idea that America is heading toward a fiscal crisis and that citizens cannot simply stand by and watch this disaster happen. The project encourages Americans to sign a public demand for action and take a pledge to support only candidates who commit to addressing federal spending and debt.

“America is in trouble, but we are certainly not helpless,” Rubin said. “We still have the resources, the ingenuity and the economic strength to solve this problem. But we need Americans to get involved.”

“Think of it as throwing a rope to someone who is drowning at sea,” Rubin said. “And we are drowning in debt and asking Americans to throw that rope now, before it is too late.”

The pledge asks Americans to make their votes conditional on candidates' willingness to address the nation's fiscal problems.

“Congress will not act until members of Congress believe the American people will support the difficult political choices they must make,” Rubin said. “The most powerful thing an American can do is to tell a candidate: I will support you if you are willing to address this problem, but I will not support you if you continue to pretend it does not exist.”

Rubin said Rescue America Project is to do much more than simply to warn Americans about what could happen. It is designed to demonstrate that responsible fiscal policy can produce tangible benefits for American families.

“Balancing the budget and controlling the debt is not just about avoiding some future catastrophe,” Rubin said. “It is about making America more prosperous today. A balanced budget will mean lower inflation, lower interest rates, stronger economic growth and more opportunity. Real economic growth based on sound economic policy is how our real incomes grow. “

“We have used much of our fiscal space already,” Rubin added. “When the next recession, war or financial crisis arrives, we need the ability to respond. If we have already exhausted our borrowing capacity, what will we do then?”

Rubin said the country cannot wait until a financial crisis makes the choices for us – that is choosing failure by default. He emphasized that the project is ultimately about citizens taking responsibility for the nation's future. “Our Nation, Our Responsibility.”

“We inherited a country that worked,” Rubin said. “We have an obligation to make sure we avoid leaving our children and grandchildren a country that is bankrupt, buried under debt and denied the opportunities we had.”

“The question is not do we have a problem, but do we have the courage to act before a crisis forces us to,” Rubin said. “That is what Rescue America Project is about. We are asking Americans to learn what is happening, get involved and throw the rope before it is too late.”

“Our job is to make the invisible visible,” Gephart said. “The national debt can seem like a distant Washington problem until you show people exactly how it reaches into their paycheck, their mortgage, their retirement and their children's future. We are going to use powerful, engaging and sometimes unexpected videos to make this problem impossible to look away from.

For more information and to learn how to “Throw the Rope,” visit the Rescue America Project at rescueamericaproject.com.

About Rescue America Project
Rescue America Project is a nonpartisan public service program dedicated to helping Americans understand the dangers posed by excessive federal spending, deficits and national debt as well as the many benefits from financial responsibility and balancing the budget. Through videos, social media, educational materials and traditional media outreach, the project illustrates how Washington's fiscal decisions affect the everyday lives of Americans and the future of their families. Rescue America Project encourages citizens to become informed, demand accountability from elected officials and “Throw the Rope” by pledging to support candidates who commit to addressing America's spending and debt problems.

About Main Street Economics
Main Street Economics was formed to provide Economic Education for the American public. We focus on explaining the fiscal problems we face and basic economics in easy-to-understand language by laymen for laymen without formal education in economics.


To schedule an interview with Les Rubin, please contact Dan Rene at 202-329-8357 or dan@danrene.com.

Dan Rene
Dan Rene Communications
+1 202-329-8357
dan@danrene.com
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The government is $40 trillion in debt. That’s money we are ALL on the hook for.