Reach an agreement. Soon.

That’s our message to leaders of both parties in Congress and President Obama as they seek a deal to avert the potential for a damaging government default, slice the federal budget deficit and dent the debt.

After months of gridlock, finger-pointing and posturing, closed-door negotiations have reached a critical moment. Leaders are scheduled to meet with the President Sunday. Hopes for a deal may be met or dashed in the next few days.

This long and disappointing spectacle surrounds the debt ceiling — a mechanism that allows Congress to control how much money the U.S. Treasury can borrow to pay the nation’s bills. It has been raised 40 times since 1980, and is currently $14.29 trillion.

The Treasury says that unless the ceiling is raised by Aug. 2, the government will cease to have adequate dollars to pay bills and cover obligations. What happens next, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, is that the government will be forced to pick and choose which bills it pays and which bills it delays.

The government could, for example, cover interest on the debt, Medicare, Medicaid, defense contracts, unemployment insurance and Social Security. But that would exhaust all available funds, leaving every other aspect of government unfunded. Veterans’ benefits, Pell Grants and military pay would be among the countless casualties.

Beyond government, many economists predict that default could deliver a serious blow to a fragile, faltering U.S. economy. Gloomy June jobless numbers underscore the nation’s precarious economic condition.

Some Republican presidential hopefuls campaigning in Iowa discount the impact of missing the deadline and oppose raising the debt limit. But do we really want to find out whose predictions are right? Billionaire investor Warren Buffett called that prospect “Russian roulette.”

Instead, we need a deal.

The president has now expressed a willingness to find $4 trillion dollars in budget reductions over the next 10 years, while also erasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax credits, breaks and loopholes to raise more revenue. Republican leaders are keen to slash spending, but have so far said they can’t accept any measure that raises revenues.

They’ve got to get over it, just as Democrats must get over the notion that Medicare and Social Security are untouchable. There can be no serious, effective deficit/debt reduction plan that does not touch entitlements and raise new revenues. And in a divided government, there can be no deal unless both sides give up something significant.

The nation needs evidence that its political institutions are still capable of functioning in this summer of shutdowns and near-shutdowns. Reach an agreement.

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