It is certainly welcome news that both sides of the aisle can agree on this, but it remains to be seen whether we will see a genuine dialogue on important policy decisions or a bitter, partisan debate marked by political posturing.
The promise for a solution is that the basic facts are a matter of arithmetic, not ideology.
Two factors stand out: demographics and health care costs. Over the next 25 years, the number of Americans aged 65 and up is expected to almost double. The working-age population will grow by only 10 percent over this time.
This demographic change will place extraordinary demands on the economy and the nation's workforce, which will be called on to transfer a large and rising share of resources from workers to retirees.
At the same time, one of the major engines of economic growth, an expanding workforce, will slow substantially due to the large exodus of older workers from the labor force and lower birth rates following the baby boom.
Thus, the ratio of workers paying into Social Security and Medicare relative to the number of beneficiaries will fall by roughly one-third, which, along with the slower economic activity will lead to large cash flow deficits for these programs.
Demographic change, however, is only part of the problem. Health care prices, on average, have outpaced economic growth by 2.6 percentage points annually since 1960.
If this phenomenon persists, it will greatly compound the growing fiscal problems attributable to the rising number of aged as Medicare and Medicaid will absorb as much of our nation's economy by the late 2040's, as the entire federal budget does today.
Most worrisome is that, as of now, there is no plan to pay for these programs in the future other than by running up the national debt.
This is why The Concord Coalition organized the Fiscal Wake Up Tour.
Our goal is to explain in plain terms why budget analysts of diverse perspectives are increasingly alarmed by the nation's long-term fiscal outlook.
Over the last year, The Concord Coalition, The Brookings Institution and The Heritage Foundation have been joined by U.S. Comptroller General David Walker to engage the public on this crucial policy area.
We cut through the usual partisan rhetoric to stimulate a more-realistic public dialogue on what we want our nation's future to look like, along with the required trade-offs.
We believe that elected leaders in Washington know there is a problem, but they are unlikely to act unless their constituents better understand the need for action, and indeed, demand it.
Members of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour do not necessarily agree on the ideal levels of spending, taxes and debt, but we do agree on the following key points:
• Current fiscal policy is unsustainable.
• There are no free lunch solutions, such as cutting waste, fraud and abuse or growing our way out of the problem.
• The best way to make the hard choices is through a bipartisan process with all options on the table.
• This is not about numbers -- it is a moral issue.
We hope that you will join us at a forum and make your voice heard as the debate in Washington proceeds and the 2008 campaign season approaches.
Zeeve is national field director for the Concord Coalition.