Local father-son duo prepares to announce $12 trillion national debt

PAWTUCKET - It was 1996 and Bill Greenwood and his son David had just given gawking neighbors their first look at America's national debt in bold numbers. The ballooning debt was around $4 trillion at that time, the Greenwoods recall, a warning sign, they say, to those in leadership that they should stop spending money that wasn't available.

"I really thought this country would wake up someday," said Bill Greenwood, the chairman of the Rhode Island branch of the National Reform Party.

The father/son duo of Greenwood and Greenwood has been posting the national debt in large numbers on the side of their Sayles Avenue home for 13 years. At some point this week or early next, say these local bearers of bad tidings, they will close in on a number they never believed possible, a $12 trillion national debt that's triple the deficit seen during the first term of former President Bill Clinton.

The Greenwoods posted the latest debt numbers last Friday, a staggering $11,982,166,035,664 - and counting, as each U.S. citizen's share of the national debt approaches $40,000.

"This is a catastrophe waiting to happen if it hasn't happened already," said the elder Greenwood, 69, who joined the Reform Party back in its heyday when party legend Ross Perot made his improbable run to nearly 20 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election.

Dave Greenwood climbed up on his rickety, weather-worn wooden ladder last Friday to post the latest national debt numbers from The Concord Coalition, a non-partisan organization dedicated to eliminating federal budget deficits and regularly updating federal deficit numbers online.

"I have a daughter who is 18," said the younger Greenwood, the "party builder" for the Rhode Island Reform Party. "What kind of country is this going to be for her?"

Members of the Rhode Island branch of the national Reform Party continue to meet each month at various locations. The members were scheduled to meet at the Pawtucket Public Library yesterday, Oct. 27.

It's not all doom and gloom for a father/son duo that takes turns updating the national debt numbers despite rain, wind or snow. The two say the national Reform Party has strong new leadership with a vision to become a major player once again on the national political stage.

The national Reform Party lost its ballot access in 2000 and has been without a presidential candidate since, but with membership in the millions nationally, party officials are hoping to have a Perot-like candidate on the presidential ballot in 2012.

People across the country are starting to wake up as they protest rampant government spending, says Bill Greenwood, though many Rhode Islanders continue to "sleepwalk" through each political season.

Bill Greenwood was asked whether it ever gets tiresome to keep climbing the ladder when it seems no one is paying attention anymore.

"I've often considered what the sense is of all this," he said. "I think if there's no progress by 2012 I'm going to start doing what I like to do, like painting my house or going to Slater Park."

Members of the Rhode Island Reform Party, though a vast minority, regularly push for smaller government, less spending and the reduction of debt, fair trade, health care reform, and the lowering of taxes, among other agenda items. To learn more about the Rhode Island Reform Party, visit www.rireformparty.org .