U.S. Fiscal Crisis Looms, Warns Debt Commission

By Rachel Whitt

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairmen of the President’s fiscal commission, urged lawmakers on Tuesday to act swiftly to repair the nation’s mounting debt.

Testifying before the Senate Budget Committee, Bowles, a former Chief of Staff to Democratic President Bill Clinton emphasized the immediacy of reducing America’s debt, which currently sits at $14.1 trillion due in large part to a projected deficit this year of $1.65 trillion. 

“This debt and these deficits that we are incurring on an annual basis are like a cancer,” Bowles said. “They are truly going to destroy this country from within unless we have the commonsense to do something about it.” 

Bowles predicted that if foreign nations stop lending to the U.S., the country would face a huge debt crisis within the next couple years.

“This problem is going to happen long before my grandchildren grow up,” Bowles said. “This is a problem we are going to have to face up to it maybe two years, maybe a little more, maybe a little less.”

Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, agreed. “I think it will come before two years.” 

The co-chairs later spoke at an event launching The Moment of Truth Project, which will spearhead coordinated efforts to implement the commission’s proposals. A bipartisan group that included Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also spoke at the event, championing their work as commission members. Those lawmakers and seven others voted for the panel’s proposal, which suggested spending cuts, tax increases and entitlement reform as a means of balancing the federal budget.

The 18-member commission’s 65-page report, ‘The Moment of Truth,’ was released in December of 2010, but failed to receive the 14 votes necessary to merit an up-or-down vote in Congress.