如果你的房子着火了，而孩子们还在里面，你绝不会耸肩说：“我只是一个人，所以无能为力。”你会冲向危险，因为你所爱的人正面临风险，而等待无异于放弃。美国正面临另一种类型的“火灾”——一场财政危机，而我们的子孙后代早已身处这栋房子之中。有些人已经听说了太久关于国家债务的警告，以至于他们得出结论：绝不会发生什么可怕的事情。
If your house were on fire and your children were inside, you would not shrug and say that you are only one person and therefore powerless. You would run toward danger because the people you love were at risk and because waiting would be an act of surrender. America is facing a different kind of fire. It is a fiscal fire, and our children and grandchildren are already inside the house. Some have heard warnings about the national debt for so long that they conclude nothing terrible ever happens.
另一些人则认为，一个人的声音根本无足轻重。有些人不认为这个问题很严重。还有些人则假设，由于美国仍然是世界最强大的经济体，没有任何力量能够击垮我们。这些思维定式忽略了一个事实：此刻与我们过去所面对的任何情况都截然不同。国家债务现已超过40万亿美元，这一数字之庞大，几乎令人难以想象；它意味着全国每位男性、女性和儿童平均背负着约11.7万美元的债务。
Others believe a single voice cannot possibly matter. Some do not think the problem is serious. Others assume that because the United States remains the world’s strongest economy, nothing can bring us down. Those habits of mind ignore how different this moment is from anything we have faced before. The national debt has now surpassed $40 trillion, a sum so large it is almost impossible to hold in the mind and a burden of roughly $117,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.
数字本身令人望而生畏，但更值得我们警惕的是这一趋势的发展方向。华盛顿正将美国推向一场我们再也无法忽视的债务危机。联邦政府持续支出超过收入，年度赤字年复一年地达到数万亿美元规模，且看不到尽头。社会保障和医疗保险项目存在高达数万亿美元的资金缺口，而目前并无任何严肃的计划来填补这一差距。
The size of the number is daunting, but the direction of the path is what should keep us awake. WASHINGTON IS DRIVING AMERICA TOWARD A DEBT CRISIS WE CAN'T IGNORE ANY LONGER The federal government continues to spend more than it collects, and deficits stretch into the multi-trillion-dollar range year after year with no end in sight. Social Security and Medicare carry unfunded obligations measured in the tens of trillions, and there is no serious plan to close the gap.
信托基金将在几年内耗尽，届时现行法律将迫使大幅削减福利。利息支出目前已超过每年1万亿美元，占联邦总收入的五分之一以上，而且这一比例还在不断上升。政府问责办公室指出，联邦政府正走在一条不可持续的财政道路上，这将带来严重的经济、国家安全和社会挑战。这些都不是党派之间的政治说辞。它们是数学现实，使得今天有别于我们历史上的任何早期篇章。
The trust funds will be exhausted in a few years, and current law would then force major benefit cuts. Interest costs already exceed $1 trillion a year and consume more than one fifth of total federal revenue, and that share is growing. The Government Accountability Office says the federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path that poses serious economic, national security and societal challenges. These are not partisan talking points. They are mathematical realities, and they make today unlike any earlier chapter in our history.
医疗保险是美国最伟大的成功之一——也是一颗财政定时炸弹在某个时刻，债务不再是政府报告中的一个抽象数字，而成为对经济的直接威胁。投资者最终会失去信心，停止以我们能承受的利率购买我们的债务。那就是庞氏骗局式结构崩塌、财政危机降临之时。我们不能等到那一天，仿佛惊讶能让结果更光荣。
MEDICARE IS ONE OF AMERICA’S GREATEST SUCCESSES — AND A FISCAL TIME BOMB At some point, debt stops being an abstract figure in a government report and becomes a direct threat to the economy. Investors will eventually lose confidence and stop buying our debt at rates we can bear. That is when the Ponzi structure collapses and a fiscal crisis arrives. We cannot wait for that day as if surprise will make the outcome more honorable.
美国最大的经济实力始终是其人民——那些工作、储蓄、投资、创办企业、抚养家庭、解决难题的男男女女。我们从前几代人手中继承了一个非凡的国家。我们有道德义务留给子孙后代一个至少与我们接手时同样强大的国家，而不是一个破产的国家。50万亿美元的债务不是遥远的威胁。美国正在加速冲向它对于如此巨大的问题，没有无痛的出路。
America’s greatest economic strength has always been its people, the men and women who work, save, invest, build businesses, raise families and solve hard problems. We inherited an extraordinary country from previous generations. We have a moral obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a country at least as strong as the one we received, not one that is bankrupt. $50 TRILLION IN DEBT IS NOT A DISTANT THREAT. AMERICA IS SPEEDING TOWARDS IT There is no painless way out of a problem this large.
控制政府支出和赤字将意味着克制、福利改革、更强劲的增长，以及一些选民不喜欢的选择。这些选择必须趁还有时间时做出，因为现在的纪律之痛，与失败的金融体系留下的废墟相比微不足道——那时储蓄缩水、信贷枯竭、企业倒闭，甚至基本的政府承诺也将更难兑现。答案最终掌握在“我们人民”手中。国会不会因为经济学家又出了一份报告、总统又发表了一次演讲、或某个政党突然发现了财政美德而解决问题。
Getting government spending and deficits under control will mean restraint, entitlement reform, stronger growth and choices that some voters will dislike. Those choices still must be made while there is time, because the pain of discipline now is small next to the wreckage of a failed financial system, when savings shrink, credit dries up, businesses fail and even basic government promises will be harder to guarantee. The answer ultimately rests with "We the People." Congress will not fix the problem because economists produce another report, or one president gives another speech, or because one political party suddenly discovers fiscal virtue.
只有当美国人民明白危险有多严重，并要求国会修复它制造的烂摊子时，问题才会得到解决。这就是我们声音和选票的力量。一个公民无法改变华盛顿。
It will happen when the American people understand how serious the danger is and demand that Congress repair the mess it has created. That is the power of our voices and our votes. One citizen will not change Washington.
数百万个体的决定可以汇聚成一股国会无法忽视的政治力量。一旦我们认识并接受这一现实，我们就会采取行动。剩下的问题是，我们是否会在损害变得不可逆转之前采取行动。我们的子孙后代正指望着我们。我们不应让他们身处火海之中。 来自 LES RUBIN
Millions of individual decisions can become a political force that Congress cannot ignore. . Once we recognize and accept that reality, we will act. The remaining question is whether we will act before the damage becomes irreversible. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us. We should not leave them in a burning house. FROM LES RUBIN