More than 80 chief executive officers from the country's largest corporations have joined together in a rare show of unity to pressure Congress for a bipartisan plan to shrink the country's debt, Reuters reported Thursday.
The goal is to restore confidence in the economy and spur business investment, which has stalled according to recent economic data.
The coalition of 86 companies including Goldman Sachs, Cisco and Boeing, is calling for Congress to come up with a long-term solution during its "lame-duck session" following the election, Reuters said.
The country's deficit is over $1 trillion for the fourth straight year, topping $16 trillion in September.
If Congress doesn't come up with a plan many predict the country will go over a "fiscal cliff" created by a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes that would take effect at the beginning of 2013, creating a potentially catastrophic recession.
"We are one deal away from fixing the debt and putting our nation back on a stronger economic footing that can restore us to greater job growth," Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said in a statement on Thursday backed by 86 other CEOs, as reported by Reuters.
President Barack Obama said this week he expected to have a "grand bargain" deficit-reduction deal within six months of starting a second term that will reduce the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade.
The CEOs' statement was organized by a group called "The Campaign to Fix the Debt," essentially a single-issue coalition led by big name political and business figures from both parties, and former government officials, Reuters reported.
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