CEOs of more than 80 big American corporations voiced support today for a comprehensive, bipartisan deficit reduction plan in a joint statement organized by the bipartisan Fix the Debt campaign. The statement calls on Congress to pass a deficit reduction package that includes tax reform that raises new revenue, entitlement reforms and spending cuts.

“There is no possible way; you can do the arithmetic a million different ways" to avoid raising taxes, Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, told the Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel. "You can't tax your way to fix this problem, and you can't cut entitlements enough to fix this problem."

Aetna's Mr. Bertolini traced his involvement to February 2011 when he called on Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) just as a meeting of the Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators pursuing a deficit compromise, was breaking up. "Sen. Warner put his head in his hands, and said, 'Why is this so hard?'"

Several of the CEOs involved in the Fix the Debt campaign rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange this morning in an effort to bring attention to the issue of the deficit. 

“We're in the business of risk management, and this is the biggest risk our country faces,” said Dan Glasier, COO/President of Marsh & McLennan.