Erskine Bowles: “But if we only do Social Security, we have not come close to solving the problem.”

A balanced, long-term approach to deficit reduction that keeps everything on the table is the only way that we are going to be able to address the deficit.

Failure to reach our target will lock us into mandatory indiscriminate cuts and will limit our options in the future.

Our problem is spending, and it is all spending, so each side of the aisle needs to understand that some of the things they love dearly are subject to some cuts.

As a matter of good social policy, these programs deserve to be reformed.