Want to Shrink the Deficit? Call These Harvard Students

The nation's deficit is balooning, as the gap between tax revenue and government spending continues to grow. The Government Accountability Office says that the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path.

Luckily, the nation's college students might have a plan to fix the problem. The College Fiscal Challenge, held annually, is a nationwide academic competition where students submit their plans to put the U.S. on a sustainable fiscal path.

After receiving the proposals, the Fiscal Challenge selects three finalists who head to Washington D.C. to present their plan to a panel of judges. This year's judges included Steve Bell from Bipartisan Policy Center, Alex Brill from the  American Enterprise Institute, Jim Kessler from Third Way, and Diane Lim from the Committee for Economic Development. Brendan Greeley an anchor with Bloomberg News moderated the competition.

This year's winning team hails from Harvard University and includes Eric Yang, Lukas Althoff, Jessica Li, Kavi Patel and Richard He. Their plan included adding a Value Added Tax (VAT), raising the gas tax, reducing the corporate tax and raising the taxable maximum income for Social Security among other changes.

Two of the winners, Kavi Patel and Lukas Althoff, stopped by FOXBusiness.com to discuss their winning plan and why studying economics is important for today's college students.