Debt Debate Presents Historic Opportunity

Polls show the American people are justifiably fed up with the debt debate in Washington. As frustrating as the process has been, it is very encouraging that Congress -- for the first time in years -- is focused on reducing spending instead of increasing it. The federal debt limit has been raised no fewer than 51 times since 1978, but this is the first time in memory that Congress has tied spending cuts to the debt ceiling vote.

The days of automatically increasing the debt ceiling year after year are over. This welcome change comes not a moment too soon. We are borrowing roughly 40 cents of every dollar we spend, and our $14.3 trillion national debt equals more than 95 percent of our entire economy. This is a dangerously high level of debt. In a recent study, economists demonstrated that economic growth is reduced by one to two percent when a nation's debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 90 percent. Each percentage point loss in economic growth translates to one million lost jobs, according to estimates from the president's Council of Economic Advisers. It's no wonder that the unemployment rate is 9.2 percent with a debt this high.

Historic levels of debt can only be solved by historic spending cuts. Accordingly on July 19, the House of Representatives passed historic legislation to permanently reduce spending. The Cut, Cap & Balance Act would cut spending by $111 billion in 2012, bringing non-defense discretionary spending back down to 2008 levels -- before the Obama/Pelosi spending explosion. The legislation also includes caps on future spending. While spending as a percentage of GDP has averaged around 20 percent since the end of World War II, it is now up to 23 percent. The caps in Cut, Cap & Balance would force Congress to gradually reduce spending until it equals 18 percent of the economy -- a figure that corresponds to the average rate of revenue for the past 30 years. It shouldn't take a law to force Congress to spend no more than it takes in, but recent history has shown that enforceable spending caps may be necessary to impose fiscal discipline. Another crucial tool is a Balanced Budget Amendment. Forty-nine states, including Oklahoma, operate under balanced budget requirements, and the federal government should do the same. The Cut, Cap & Balance Act would allow the American people to vote on adding an amendment to the Constitution that would require Congress to enact a balanced budget every year.

Three days after the House had passed this comprehensive, commonsense plan to avoid default and put America on the path to a balanced budget, Senate Democrats rejected the proposal. It's bad enough that Senate Democrats have not passed a budget in more than 800 days, but rejecting the only legislation on the table to effectively address the debt ceiling is the height of irresponsibility. House Republicans have done our job. We have passed a bill to resolve the debt ceiling debate and reform spending, well ahead of the August 2 deadline. After weeks of delay, the question remains: When will President Obama and his party take the debt crisis seriously?