Bowles and Simpson Announce Campaign to Fix the Debt on CNBC's Squawkbox

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson appeared alongside Warren Buffett on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning, discussing the need for Congress to pass a comprehensive and sizeable deficit reduction plan. 

Naturally, the conversation turned to one of the most pressing issues facing the country -- the fiscal cliff. Bowles in particular was worried about the possibility that Congress would fail to address the cliff and the disastrous consequences it would have for our economy:

I think if they don't — if they don't turn around very quickly and fix it shortly thereafter, then I think it could be a disaster for the country. Seven trillion worth of economic events. It will have an effect of at least 1.5% decline in GDP next year. That's enough to put us back into recession. Dick Durbin kept asking where is the tipping point. We don't have to do it. This is not only the most predictable economic crisis but the most avoidable if we come together, put partisanship aside and pull together.

Despite both the looming fiscal cliff and our escalating deficits, Warren Buffett provided some optimism with his praise for the Simpson-Bowles plan:

They did exactly what they'd been asked to do, and they came up with a plan. No plan is perfect, you know. Everybody comes up with a little different one but everybody knows that we need something done, and they did their job and Congress has not done its job.

We applaud Buffett for his continued support of deficit reduction and his praise for the Simpson-Bowles plan. This issue affects all of us, from business leaders like Buffett to ordinary citizens. That is why we need broad-basedsupport to push Members of Congress and the President to make deficit reduction a prioriity. Bowles directed listeners to CRFB's new project The Campaign to Fix the Debt at fixthedebtcampaign.org, an unprecedented and bipartisan campaign to push Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff and tackle our long-term debt issues.

The clip of Bowles announcing the campaign can be seen below, and the other portions of the interview can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: There is also an op-ed in the Financial Times about the debt written by Honeywell CEO and Fiscal Commission member Dave Cote.