Solution to Debt: Cut, Cap and Balance

The ongoing debt ceiling debate highlights, once again, the fundamental differences in each party's approach to dealing with the deficit. Republicans want to cut spending; Democrats want to raise taxes.

The American people understand that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay the bill for the federal government spending spree that has occurred under President Obama and congressional Democrats. The national debt has increased by $3.7 trillion since President Obama took office in January 2009. That figure seems even more outrageous when one considers that it took the United States from 1776 to 1992 to accumulate the same amount of debt that President Obama racked up in just two and a half years.

President Obama is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion -- a sum that coincides closely to the amounts spent on his unpopular policies of the past two years. The failed stimulus, which Republicans opposed, cost taxpayers almost $1 trillion, while his health care overhaul -- opposed by Republicans and a majority of the American people -- will cost taxpayers $2 trillion. Voters resoundingly rejected these big spending, big government policies in the 2010 elections, yet the president and Democratic leaders still oppose the major spending cuts that are clearly necessary to begin rolling back our $14.3 trillion national debt.

The consequences of failure to make progress on debt reduction are very serious, as demonstrated by recent warnings from major credit ratings agencies that the nation's government bond rating could soon be downgraded. Standard & Poor’s indicated there is a 50 percent chance that the U.S. credit rating could be downgraded within three months, putting the United States in the company of nations like Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which have also undergone downgrades in recent weeks due to their inability to confront crippling debt.

There is no reason for the full faith and credit of the United States to be threatened in this way. Republicans have consistently proposed and acted on plans to cut spending and create jobs. We passed $6.2 trillion in spending cuts in April in the form of the 2012 budget, and we have proposed trillions of dollars in cuts during debt ceiling negotiations with the president. By contrast, President Obama has offered to cut spending by $1.5 trillion.

It is imperative that Congress enact significant and enforceable spending reforms to ensure that the nation's financial security is not jeopardized again. Republicans have maintained that any debt ceiling discussion must include these components. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, which House Republicans introduced on July 15, would permanently reform the budget process. The legislation would create federal spending caps that would reduce spending to 19.9 percent of GDP. The Cut, Cap and Balance plan also includes a Balanced Budget Amendment that would require a super-majority vote of Congress to raise taxes and that would be legally binding for future Congresses, ensuring that the government can only spend what it takes in.

We have the opportunity to change the debt trajectory once and for all. Republicans have a plan on the table that would avoid defaulting on the national debt and enact lasting spending cuts to protect our children and grandchildren from being overwhelmed by a debt they did not create. As the August 2 deadline approaches, there is still time for the president to accept the proposed spending cuts and join our efforts to put the nation on a path to fiscal sanity.