The following op-ed is excerpted and adapted from Sen. Tom Coburn’s new book, “The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America.” This is the third of a four-part series.

When Washington is finally forced to confront its unsustainable fiscal course, the scope of deficit reduction required to solve the problem will be much closer to $9 trillion than it is to the $1 trillion or so in phony spending cuts that have been considered in Washington.