‘If we don’t work together to strengthen our entitlement programs, they will go bankrupt. Automatic cuts will be forced on seniors already receiving benefits, rendering worthless the promises that they’ve built their retirements around. It’s nice to say, as the President did yesterday, that these programs free us to take the risks that make our country great. But if we don’t act to strengthen and protect them now, in a few years they simply won’t be there in their current form. And if we don’t work together to control the debt, then the cost of our interest payments alone will eventually crowd out funding for things we all agree on — from defense, to infrastructure and assistance for those who need it most. In short, the debate we’re now engaged in over the growing federal debt is about much more than numbers on a page. It’s about the cost of inaction in terms of promises broken, jobs lost, and dreams deferred. And that’s why there’s simply no more time to waste.’