The House needs to do its job, pass an increase in the debt ceiling attached with hundreds of billions of immediate cuts to the 2012 budget, and send it to the Senate. Then, if there needs to be anyone to blame, it will be Harry Reid if he doesn’t pass a bill in the Senate, or Obama if he refuses to sign the bill that ultimately passes. But Republicans need to keep their word and attach big spending cuts to the debt ceiling increase — and pass it.
Let’s face it. The debt ceiling negotiations have failed. The Obama Administration continues to ask Congress for a blank check from the American people to spend trillions of dollars we don’t have. Obama wants tax hikes to service a debt so large it cannot possibly be repaid, crippling an already-beleaguered economy, and getting us no closer to fiscal normalcy.
Republicans have negotiated in good faith, but now is the time to take a stand. The only way forward is to cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of the 2012 budget, saving trillions of dollars and balancing the budget by the end of this decade. If they act immediately on behalf of the American people, they can save the nation from a catastrophic default in the coming years and prevent Washington from becoming Athens.
We need to cut spending now. The Ryan budget plan that passed the House will not accomplish a balanced budget for 26 years. We don’t have 26 years to get our fiscal house in order. Within days of the House passing the well-intentioned Ryan plan, S&P downgraded its outlook on U.S. debt from stable to negative. Soon thereafter, Moody’s threatened to do the same. The Social Security and Medicare trustees then reported that the trust funds will be exhausted much sooner than thought just a year ago. And the debt will still rise to $26 trillion by 2021, with annual gross interest payments well over $1 trillion by then as interest rates return to their historic norm of 5 percent.
In light of these new facts, Republicans have every reason in the world to be more aggressive. If they capitulate now, they will be surrendering any credibility they have left on this issue. They need to take a stand, and surely the American people will stand with them.
