Approximately one year ago, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, identified the nation’s mounting
debt as the greatest threat to U.S. national security. I couldn’t
agree more with that assessment of our nation’s financial failures.
The biggest threat to our nation’s freedom is our ever-expanding
national debt. Washington has spent this country into oblivion and
the continuation of borrowing from other countries is only going to
hurt future generations of Americans.
Our rising debt undoubtedly poses as a national security threat,
and in order to secure our national interests, we must rebuild our
economic structure by cutting the federal deficit. We must act now
by rebuilding a sustainable economy, and we cannot find solvency if
we continue forward with such impractical spending and borrowing
habits. Real spending cuts — not small reductions in proposed
increases — are needed to solve this national crisis.
The gravity of our debt predicament weighs heavily on our
nation’s shoulders. But in order to find a solution, we have to
first admit we have a problem. We have a significant problem.
Raising the debt ceiling is like not paying your credit card bill
and then saying to the credit card company, I want to just increase
my limit. We have been doing that year after year, decade after
decade — both parties have done it and this isn’t just one party’s
problem. It’s both parties’ problem; it’s the country’s problem.
How big is it? We are spending $10 billion a day. Of that $10
billion, we are borrowing $4 billion a day. Spending $100,000 a
second, and borrowing $45,000 a second. This is irresponsible by
all parties. It’s time for real leadership to protect our nation’s
fiscal security.
Government is not spending your money wisely. Often it isn’t
even accounted for. The Pentagon cannot balance its books. It can’t
be audited because it recently admitted it’s too big to be audited.
Our debt is largely owned by foreign countries, such as China,
making us very vulnerable to foreign manipulation and angst.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated, “It [debt]
undermines our capacity to act in our own interests, and it does
constrain us where constraint may be undesirable. And it also sends
a message of weakness internationally.” America should be very
concerned, for we are becoming increasingly vulnerable and our
well-being is dwindling beneath the weight of our massive debt.
Uncontrolled national debt directly contributes to national
security concerns, such as a defective economy, social disorder,
revolutions, bankruptcy, famine, and war. We are currently seeing
this sort of turmoil take place in Greece while the Greek
government attempts to curb that country’s economic crisis. I, with
many Americans, am concerned that one day we could look like
Greece. That day could be in the near future if we do not wake up
to the problem. I am not alone in this. Members of the president’s
own administration have said that the number-one threat to our
national security is our national debt.
Stifling the American standard of living can be avoided by
reducing spending and reining in our national debt. You wonder why
Congress has a 14 percent approval rating; it’s because its members
have been poor stewards with your money. They have been profligate
spenders. In order for the American people to believe that we’re
going to do a better job, we need a new rule. We need a Balanced
Budget Amendment.
We cannot spend our way out of this debt. Washington must reduce
spending to solve the debt crisis once and for all. I will keep
fighting to balance the budget and dramatically reduce spending,
before further interest on our debt requires the government to
reach deeper into our pockets and the pockets of generations to
come. Our disastrous debt is harming our standard of living and
damaging our national security, thus we must act now before it is
too late.
