The next time you go to a football game, imagine the entire field covered with $100 bills stacked as high as the Statue of Liberty. That is roughly $14 trillion, or the size of our national debt.

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf recently wrote that, “Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run.”

This, along with an economy that isn’t growing, is our generation’s greatest challenge. With the baby boomer generation getting older, health care costs will increase while the taxpayer-to-entitlement recipient ratio will fall below sustainable levels. With this reality, we will have to increase annual deficits to cover the costs, and increasing interest rates will consume more and more taxpayer dollars. Currently, we borrow $4 billion a day, and half of that debt is held by foreign investors, mostly China.

According to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, the cost of these entitlement programs will continue to grow at a rate that makes this problem get even worse the further into the future we look. The CBO estimates that by 2020, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will make up a combined 45 percent of all federal spending. It also predicts that defense spending will make up 16 percent of the 2020 federal budget. This really starts becoming a problem when you look 40 to 50 years down the road.

According to the CBO, sometime around 2060, spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone will exceed the total of all money that the government takes in. Even if the federal government would be able to forgo all other spending, it would still reach a point where it is unable to raise the revenue needed just to pay for the big three entitlement programs. The federal government spends trillions of dollars a year in defense and discretionary spending. This means that out of control entitlement spending is likely to lead to a financial crisis well before 2060.

All together, this creates an unsustainable future for our generation. Without significant change, we will be paying a lifetime’s worth of higher taxes and fees only to see a reduction in benefits. As then-Senator Barack Obama said in 2006, “Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

This deficit problem is an iceberg, and we’re headed right for it. But Obama’s agenda does nothing to turn the steering wheel. Instead, it chooses to slam down the accelerator. Fortunately, the Republican house has offered two plans to put on the brakes and move us back from the deficit cliff. One is “Cut Cap and Balance” and the other proposal is from Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). Ryan’s plan, also known as the “Roadmap for America’s Future,” is just that – a comprehensive method for righting the balance sheet and making sure that our generation is put on a path toward financial stability.

To give you an idea of what the Republicans’ plan for deficit reduction looks like, let’s take a look at the Ryan Plan. The all-encompassing roadmap tackles everything from health care reform, Medicare and Medicaid, to the tax code. The plan would freeze all discretionary spending, except national defense and veteran’s health care for five years. It would also simplify the income tax code by creating a two-tiered flat tax — 10 percent for incomes up to $100,000 and 25 percent on higher-income earners.

Corporate income taxes, which are currently the world’s second highest, would be replaced with a consumption tax of 8.5 percent. The plan would also overhaul Medicare to give seniors premium support through vouchers for private insurance to draw more people into a competitive market. It would index the retirement age for Social Security to today’s life expectancy, and make the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent.

Republicans cannot do it without our help. We are the ones who stand to lose the most if entitlement reform is not enacted. These programs face a future of insolvency. Unless something is done, we will pay a lifetime’s worth of higher taxes for reduced benefits. Stand with us in our fight to tell Washington “Don’t Put It On Our Tab.“