With an impending showdown of the federal debt limit looming, neither Republicans nor Democrats are addressing the only real way to reign in debt and keep the U.S. fiscally solvent. In a New York Sun column today, I tell lawmakers a difficult truth:

The United States currently limits the federal debt to $31.4 trillion. Borrowing hit this limit on January 19, but the government will not default until at least July due to various “extraordinary measures.” If default occurs, a major financial crisis is likely. How should the United States respond?

By cutting Social Security and Medicare.

The United States is on an unsustainable fiscal path. Projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that under current policy, the debt-to-GDP ratio increases without bound. This means increasing borrowing costs, greater difficulty in rolling over the debt, and eventually fiscal and financial meltdown.

…

Medicare and Social Security, moreover, are precisely the programs to cut. This starts from the fact that both are large (11.4 percent and 17.2 percent of federal outlays, respectively). More importantly, both programs are projected to grow consistently at a faster pace than GDP. This excessive growth reflects the aging of the population (for both programs) and excess health cost inflation (for Medicare).

Read the rest here.