Achieving a Sustainable Fiscal Path

December 14, 2012

Strengthening of America—Our Children’s Future is a bipartisan initiative cochaired by former senators Sam Nunn, Pete Domenici, Evan Bayh, and the late Warren Rudman to raise public consciousness of the country’s growing debt. This report from the initiative is based on a series of public forums held last fall featuring former secretaries of the treasury Robert Rubin, James A. Baker III, and Lawrence H. Summers; former secretary of defense Robert Gates; former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen; former secretary of health and human services Donna Shalala; and former Senate majority leader and CSIS trustee William Frist (R-TN), among others. The report outlines five broad principles that emerged from the forums:

1. The U.S. debt is a ticking time bomb for our economy.

2. The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.

3. We cannot have economic growth without fiscal stability or fiscal stability without growth.

4. We cannot put our debt on a sustainable path without reductions in the projected cost of entitlement programs, cuts in discretionary spending, and higher revenues.

5. Solving this problem is achievable if our national leaders are willing to compromise.

The report features excerpts from the forums and outlines the steps that need to be taken for there to be a serious shift in the way America deals with its debt.