(CHAPEL HILL) -- Former UNC System president Erskine Bowles says Congress will have to take a balanced approach to get the national debt under control. Bowles, who also co-chaired a debt reduction commission appointed by President Obama, recently delivered a speech on the issue at UNC - Chapel Hill.

Bowles said if no action is taken, the country will responsible for more than $1 trillion in annual interest payments by 2020. "It's one trillion dollars we will spend in Asia to educate their kids, to build their infastructure, and make it more probable and make it more probable that the jobs of the future will be over there, and not here."

Bowles says Congress must reduce the deficit by at least $4 trillion over the next decade in order to stabilize the debt.

The Bowles-Simpson plan was adopted by the so-called Gang of Six in Washington. As of September 15, there were 36 Senators asking the joint committee on deficit reduction to cut the amount Bowles is recommending.