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DURHAM, N.C. – The two men tasked with solving our nation's deficit crisis spoke at Duke University on Wednesday night as part of the Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture Series.

Former UNC System President Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, say it's going to take cooperation from both sides of the aisle to keep the U.S. from a financial meltdown.

“We want people to leave here knowing we face the most predictable and avoidable economic crisis in history,” Bowles said. “The solutions are very painful and there's no easy way out. Everybody in Washington can understand the arithmetic and understand the economics that this is something we have to do.

“There's a lot of political pain in doing it and getting people to be willing to step up and put their politics aside has really, really been difficult.”

Simpson added the most difficult part is that there's no trust in Washington.

The commission co-chairs recommend Congress cut spending and reform the tax code to reduce the national deficit $4 trillion by 2020. The proposed changes include some cuts to defense spending and veteran's benefits, Social Security reform and reducing agriculture program spending. They say it's unpopular, but everyone must share in the sacrifice.

“There has been no shared sacrifice in this country since World War II. Fighting war without a tax to support it, never done that since the revolution. Now we have two with no tax to support them,” Simpson said.

Bowles said the nation's deficit is “like a cancer” and will destroy the country from within.

Bowles and Simpson say progress in Washington is particularly slow but Congress must act to keep the country from financial ruin.

The recommendations from the deficit reduction commission are being drafted into legislation to go before Congress. However, Bowles says he's not optimistic politicians will make the necessary difficult decisions this year because it's an election year.