The U.S. Senate on June 4 passed a federal budget containing deficit spending certain to plunge America deeper into debt.

The spending levels in the budget would add a projected $2 trillion to more than $9 trillion in existing debt. Imagine if we gave a credit card to every American child with an equal share of the national debt: Each child would have $120,000 of credit card debt, and the spending in this budget would add another $27,000 on top of that.

Because it is irresponsible to ask our children to one day pay our bills with interest, I opposed the budget when it originally came before the Senate in March. But like a sequel to a bad movie that was even harder to watch than the first, the final version of the budget approved this week calls for an additional $4 billion in spending above the March figures.

For the second time this year, I was the only member of my party to vote "no" on the budget.

The amount of U.S. debt held by foreign countries like China and Japan is at a historic high, with foreign investors holding 46 percent of America's publicly held debt. The growing arrears to foreign competitors raise the specter that other nations will be able to influence our policies in ways antithetical to our national interests. With every additional dollar we owe, we give up another piece of our national sovereignty. The more of our debt that foreign governments control, the more leverage they will have at the negotiating table on issues like trade, currency and even national security.

Third Way, a centrist policy group in Washington, recently released a report that illustrates how much our national debt costs each one of us. The group broke down how the government spends the $13,000 in federal income and payroll taxes that the average working-age American sent to Washington in 2007.

A brief snapshot: $593 of your tax dollars go to the war in Iraq, $872 to Medicaid, $133 to health care research, $355 to veterans benefits, $107 to public schools . . . and $1,085 to pay the interest on our national debt.

It is true that the Bush administration inherited record surpluses and has plunged us deep into the red. However, fiscal recklessness in Washington is neither a Republican nor a Democratic problem. It is a dull ache that members of both political parties have chosen to endure, fearful that the cure will hurt more than the wound.

The current economic downturn calls for new fiscal policies. Families and businesses are tightening their belts to make ends meet, and it is time for the federal government to do the same.

This year, I have cosponsored legislation to give the president line-item veto budget authority and supported a one-year timeout from all earmark spending. I have also backed measures to stop raiding the Social Security trust fund and to crack down on illegal tax shelters that cost the government up to $70 billion each year. Most recently, I have advanced legislation that would stop payment on our blank checks to Baghdad, transferring financial responsibility for major Iraqi reconstruction projects from the U.S. taxpayer to the Iraqi government.

There has never been a compassionate government on the face of the earth supported on a foundation of debt and bankruptcy. As governor of Indiana, my administration cut spending by more than $2.1 billion, and we left office with the largest budget surplus in state history.

In 1993, I vetoed an entire state budget supported by my party because it was not fiscally sustainable. Our greatest accomplishments during my two terms as governor -- 371,000 new jobs, full college tuition for our 21st Century Scholars, $3.7 billion in new spending for schools, sending thousands of Hoosiers from welfare to work -- were predicated on the bedrock of fiscal responsibility.

Washington desperately needs a dose of Hoosier frugality. If we continue at this pace of reckless spending, we risk becoming the first generation to leave our children with a country less prosperous than we inherited.

We cannot afford to let this happen. Congress must act to restrain spending before our budget undermines the future of this generation and the next.

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