4-Feb-10 10:00 AM CST

An Urgent Fiscal Crisis

The United States is on a path to become Argentina.

Today Congressional Democrats are set to raise the debt limit again by $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion – roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy. This will be the largest one-time debt limit increase in history and the fifth increase in less than two years from the Democrats. If all this borrowing weren’t enough, President Obama’s budget would force Congress to raise the limit once again in just nine months.

The United States is facing an urgent fiscal crisis. Our national debt currently stands at $12.3 trillion, which is a $3.7 trillion or 42% increase since the Democrats took over Congress in January 2007. In three years Congressional Democrats have accumulated more federal debt than in our nation’s first 200 years. Yesterday, Moody’s Investors Service Inc said the U.S. government’s Aaa bond rating will be jeopardized unless strict measures are taken to reduce our budget deficits.

Americans across the country do not budget their finances this way and neither should the federal government. Congress has to start living within its means or we will end up like Argentina – fiscally insolvent. Instead of raising the debt limit and charging more on our credit card, we should use repaid TARP funds and unspent stimulus money for deficit reduction. We should also amend House rules to require that any increase in the statutory debt limit be considered as a stand-alone bill and pass with a supermajority two-thirds vote. I believe by taking these small steps, we can put our country back on a path to fiscal stability.

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