Over the next decade, U.S. citizens will be confronted with some difficult choices regarding our entitlement programs. The trust funds created to support Social Security and Medicare will be exhausted. When the trust funds are exhausted, these programs will shift to a cash basis and benefits may be reduced. But, as the federal government continues to incur deficits and accumulate debt at an unsustainable rate, that option is closing.

The viability of our entitlement programs in the long term will require some combination of benefit reductions and/or increased contributions. Failure to enact these reforms means that the country will drift from one year to the next until financial markets signal that financing entitlement programs with more debt is no longer feasible. Legislators have failed to address the flaws in our entitlement programs.

The only way to avoid a financial market meltdown is to enact reforms. The precedent for these reforms is the debt brakes enacted in Switzerland. Debt brakes were first enacted at the municipal and cantonal level in Switzerland. What triggered these reforms was a very important judicial decision. When a municipal government failed to pay its bills, it filed an appeal in the Swiss courts for a bailout from its cantonal government. The Swiss courts ruled that under the Swiss Constitution, the........

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