The following op-ed is excerpted and adapted from U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s new book, “The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America.” This is the first of a four part series. Forty United States Senators from both sides of aisle gathered for an early morning closed briefing on our greatest national security threat — our unsustainable debt. The meeting happened only days before a possible government shutdown. But we were concerned about a more serious shutdown — a shutdown of our economy.