The “Fiscal Wake-Up Tour” is a serious effort to get Americans to realize that the nation’s entitlement gravy train will run off a cliff a lot sooner than they think. Organized by the Concord Coalition, the tour is made up of a bipartisan mix of liberals and conservatives who don’t agree on much else, but who have put aside their differences to warn of the impending financial disaster. It is a disaster that cannot be avoided by the simple expedients of raising taxes or growing the economy.

How bad is it? Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Examiner recently that the present system of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits is “completely unsustainable.”