 Anyone who looks at projections of the U.S. federal debt sees that we are already at very high levels of debt to GDP, 90% gross debt, 70% debt in the hands of the public. Those are historically high numbers and dangerous ones for our economy. But even worse, going forward, there's quickly going to pass 100% debt to GDP and then accelerate from there. That's an unsustainable trajectory that will lead to a debt crisis without any question. We are almost at 100% of our economy in total debt to GDP, and we have tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded obligations that are off the balance sheet. We need to start dealing with these issues before we have a debt crisis in the United States. 20 or 30 years from now, we're looking at deficits of 16 or more percent of GDP every year. And that's just completely and utterly unsustainable. No country has ever run deficits like that and actually managed to stay solvents. Economists agree on very few things, but I think most of them agree that debt to GDP above 60% is not prudent. And debt to GDP at 90% has a very negative effect on growth. If the Congressional Deficit Reduction Committee fails, we're in serious trouble. We'll go into a tailspin almost immediately. In fact, we almost went into one this last time around, but I think everyone was waiting for what they probably viewed as a dox machine that would just somehow come in place, save everybody at the last minute. But most people now recognize that that can't happen anymore. The consequences are so dramatic that even failure to come up with something now is going to have enormous consequences economically and otherwise for this country. And our standard of living is going to go down immediately. I actually believe the first and indispensable step in a growth and job strategy is to show to ourselves and show to the markets of the world that the United States does not intend to go bust. And so beginning now to scale down the terrifying debt levels we have and deficit levels and putting in place long-term measures that show that we're going to deal with the unfunded obligations that aren't even being counted in these numbers. The Joint Committee needs to go big if they want to provide assurance to the capital markets, especially to our foreign investors, that we're serious about putting our financial house in order. I believe that the super committee needs to achieve at least $3 trillion in additional deficit reduction over the next 10 years. We have two terrible problems. We have very high unemployment, more than 14 million Americans are unemployed, and we have a terrible long-run budget problem. And the answer is we just simply have to make progress on both of those things. And that's why I feel so strongly that the right policy is to pair an aggressive jobs program today, which requires more government spending, requires tax cuts, but pair that with a much more serious reduction in our long-run deficit, that that absolutely is the right economic policy for the United States. Timing I think is the element. It's not an either or situation, but it's when do you start making the cuts. And in doing it in a phased approach, I think positions us for growth in the long term. Think of it as a two-step dance. In the short term, there are things that need to be done in order to get the economy going, but they're not going to affect the long-term deficit issue. The question of the long-term deficit is separate from the short-term recovery. If we correct the long-term deficit, if we put in place proposals which will lead to a fiscally responsible nation to one where we can afford the debt that we're running up, to one where our debt-to-GDP ratios fall below 60% over the next 10 years, then we'll actually help dramatically the short-term recovery because people will have confidence in our nation again. People have confidence in our currency and they'll have confidence in our ability to finance our government. But if we don't do that, then they're not going to have confidence and they're not going to make investments and the short-term economy will slow and the long-term economy will be disastrous. In order to give the economy, the business community and the private sector confidence, in order to give the international community confidence, we need to balance our budget and bring our debt load down. But at the same time, we need to, when we get that confidence, have invested in the short-term in growing jobs and giving business and enterprises and people who want to go in business, the opportunity to do so and the encouragement to do so and the economic wherewithal to do so. You know, I think if this super committee came up with a big solution which put us on a path or at least directed the key committees of Congress to put us on a path towards solving the long-term fiscal insolvency of this country, there would be a huge burst of enthusiasm and energy from the American people and the entrepreneurs in our culture that would cause a major economic expansion and create lots of jobs and make people feel good about the nation again. Failure is not an option. I mean, we really do have to deal with our long-run deficit and we have put a lot of weight on the shoulders of this super committee and they just simply, they simply have to step up.