It Can't Go on Like This Much Longer

First it was Greece. Now it is Ireland. Soon, Portugal and Spain could follow.

Those Americans who still doubt the gravity of this nation's debt problems need only to consider the crisis now unfolding in Europe. Several nations, including France and Great Britain, have been forced because of heavy debt loads to make deep cuts in social services, pensions and other benefits. Others such as Greece and Ireland have had to beg allies for bailouts to avoid economic collapse.

It would be foolhardy for Americans to believe that this nation is somehow immune to the fiscal realities that have overtaken Europe. Yet, many American politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, seem to be in denial of just how close the United States is to its own debt-driven crisis.

The national debt already stands at $13.8 trillion. And projected deficits over the next decade, about $1 trillion a year, are well above sustainable levels. The nation's underfunded liabilities, including Social Security and Medicare, also will add to the financial pressures in the years ahead if not addressed soon.

Add it altogether and the sum points to what should be an obvious conclusion: Adjustments must be made now to avoid much more painful decisions amid a fiscal emergency.

This week, a bipartisan panel commissioned to study the nation's debt is scheduled to make a recommendation on what those adjustments should include.

Whether the panel can reach a consensus by Wednesday's deadline is uncertain. Whether Congress and the president have enough political will to take on such steps as cuts to defense spending, elimination of earmarks, reductions in farm subsidies, a gradual increase in the retirement age and further limits on tax deductions is very much in doubt.

But economic principles can be violated only for so long before the inevitable consequences fall hard on the United States, as they now are falling hard on parts of Europe. Or, as Larry Summers, President Obama's former chief economic adviser, put it: "How long can the world's biggest borrower remain the world's biggest power?"

The answer to that question may be not only a loss of American prestige around the globe but also a long-lasting decline in the American people's standard of living.

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