Too many Americans are out of work. We need to address their hardships with targeted stimulus initiatives such as extending unemployment benefits, which are a very small part of our current deficit. But we cannot continue to ignore our gargantuan longer-term structural deficits. These deficits will soar even after our economy is strong again, and they are the real threat to America's future. We must combine short-term stimulus with a meaningful plan to tackle our long-term structural deficits that would go into effect after our economy has recovered sufficiently.

People fret about the current public debt rising to 60% of GDP, which many economists believe should be the maximum debt level. But they ignore Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections that, under current policies, the public debt will reach a staggering 233% of GDP in 30 years and nearly 500% in 50 years.  

This is an unthinkable and unsustainable path.  More from The Wall Street Journal here.