For the fifth straight year, the federal deficit is expected to exceed $1 trillion. Our national debt recently surpassed $15 trillion. If our debt was divided among the U.S. labor force, every single American worker would owe more than $100,000.

This is unsustainable, a national crisis, and we can’t wait to fix it.

First, our debt is a hidden tax on future generations. Instead of investing in job creation, renewable energy, infrastructure, Social Security and Medicare, our children and grandchildren will be paying back the money with interest that we’re borrowing. The interest alone on our debt currently sits at more than $200 billion a year.

Second, as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said, our national debt is the single biggest national security threat facing our country. Much of our debt is held by foreign countries which do not share our values and are not our allies.

Last year, a so-called deficit “super-committee” was tasked with coming up with a solution to this crisis. If it failed, $1 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts would begin on Jan. 1, 2013.

The cuts would be divided evenly among defense and nondefense spending. These cuts were designed to be so painful that they would force the committee to find a solution.

They didn’t. Ultimately, politics prevented compromise, the super-committee failed to reach an agreement, tax cuts and other programs were left to expire, and our nation was left staring over the edge of a fiscal cliff.

Now the clock is ticking and something must be done. To fix the problem, we need a long-term, balanced plan where nothing is left off the table.

To start, we have to take a hard look at all government programs and make sure taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck.

We have to get rid of programs that aren’t needed, and if a program is needed we must make sure it’s running as efficiently as possible.

For instance, with information now available online, we were able to cut the Government Printing Office's congressional printing and binding service by millions of dollars. Many more cuts like this can be found.

Defense cuts also must be on the table. A strong national defense doesn’t have to be an expensive national defense, and there are responsible cuts to be made.

Last year, the Commission on Wartime Contracting identified more than $30 billion in waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s $30 billion that should never have been spent.

We can find more areas to scale back, and we can do it without making any cuts that put a single American life at risk.

Next, our tax structure must be reformed so that everyone pays their fair share.

Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions of dollars on tax cuts that weren’t paid for. These cuts played a large part in turning a trillion-dollar surplus into a trillion-dollar deficit, and that is why I voted against them.

We can’t just cut our way out of this crisis. If our tax structure remains the same, our fiscal problems will only get worse.

Finally, any plan must also make job creation investments. More jobs will mean more revenue and these revenues will help get our nation out of the red.

Developing and enacting a long-term plan that puts our nation on a fiscally-sustainable path will not be painless. There will be cuts to programs we all care about, there will be defense cuts, and some taxes will be raised.

It will not be quick. We didn’t get in this hole overnight, and we won’t get out overnight. And it will not be easy. But leadership isn’t about doing what’s easy; it’s about doing what needs to be done to fix the problem.
    
I’m ready to do what it takes to fix the problem, but this can’t just be a Democratic effort or a Republican effort. It will take people on both sides of the aisle.

Some might say that Washington is too divided to accomplish anything of this magnitude. But remember, our nation weathered a civil war, rescued Europe from fascism, created the strongest economy in human history, passed the Civil Rights Act and put a man on the moon.  

We’ve been divided before, but we came together to do what is best for our country. We’ve faced long odds in the past, but we bet on America, and we achieved things no one thought possible.

I know we can do it again. We can solve this problem and shore up the resources we need to grow our economy, strengthen our national security, and protect Social Security and Medicare. It’s what our district and nation deserves.  

Congressman Mike Thompson represents Lake County, Calif., in the U.S. House of Representatives.