Former Clinton Cabinet Member Erskine Bowles Talks Debt at ISU Thursday, Introduces New ISU President Friday

Erskine Bowles, a member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet, who co-chaired a bi-partisan committee that explored solving the nation's debt problems, will speak at the 8 p.m. Thursday.

His talk entitled "A Conversation on the National Debt," is one he's been taking across the country. He spoke with Alan Simpson, the other co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibilities and Reform in Charleston West Virginia this week.

Bowles said "deficits of over $1 trillion a year are like a cancer," but that the largest problem the American government faces is health care.

"We spend twice as much as any other developed country on health care, measured by per capita spending or percentage of GDP [gross domestic product]. But we rank between 25th and 50th in categories including life expectancy and infant mortality," Bowles said as reported in the Charleston Gazette.

People without health care insurance go to hospital emergency rooms where costs are five to seven times greater, Bowles said during the lecture at the Culture Center at the Capitol in Charleston on Monday, Sept. 10.

Bowles, who will speak at the university at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union's Great Hall, is at ISU this week to do more than just talk about solving the nation's debt problems.

Bowles also served as president of the University of North Carolina from 2006 to 2010 and named Iowa State University's new president Steven Leath as vice president for research and sponsored programs for the UNC system in 2007. He will introduce Leath at his installation as the University's 15^th president. The ceremony begins 10 a.m. Friday at .