SARASOTA – Congressman Vern Buchanan penned an op-ed for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune warning of the dangers of the soaring national debt and the need to rein in record federal spending in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling.
“Washington’s massive spending problem has led to record-high levels of inflation and soaring interest rates, which are killing the budgets of everyday Americans and small businesses across the country, said Buchanan in the op-ed. “Our country is on an unsustainable path and we risk losing our standing on the world stage unless Democrats work with Republicans to reduce spending and adopt real budget reform.”
You can read the full op-ed here or below.
Our national debt remains a ticking time bomb
By the time you finish reading this, our national debt will have grown by more than $5 million.
Currently at $31 trillion, the debt is a ticking time bomb that is bringing us to the brink of bankruptcy and placing an immoral burden on our children and grandchildren.
And if that doesn’t scare you, consider the fact that about a third of our debt is held by foreign countries, including China. Enough is enough.
The time for action is now as Washington debates raising the debt limit. Nobody wants to default on our debt, but neither can we afford to keep spending money we don't have.
And we cannot keep raising the debt ceiling without addressing the root cause of the debt itself – massive overspending by the federal government.
Under one-party rule in Washington, and record spending by the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats, our national debt has ballooned by a whopping $3.8 trillion in just two short years.
In fact, the federal government spent nearly half a trillion dollars on net interest payments on the debt alone last year. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the government spent on veterans’ benefits and transportation combined and interest payments could exceed total defense spending by 2029, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Washington’s massive spending problem has led to record-high levels of inflation and soaring interest rates, which are killing the budgets of everyday Americans and small businesses across the country.
Our country is on an unsustainable path and we risk losing our standing on the world stage unless Democrats work with Republicans to reduce spending and adopt real budget reform.
We need to impose caps on discretionary spending, restore work requirements for welfare benefits and adopt a balanced budget amendment to ensure we don't return to the days of trillion-dollar spending bills that have become commonplace under Biden.
That’s why the very first bill I introduced in Congress, and continue to advocate for, is a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that would force Washington to spend no more than it takes in. This is just commonsense and precisely why 46 out of 50 states have some form of a balanced budget requirement.
Florida is a great example of a state with a massive budget that manages to balance it every year. In fact, in fiscal year 2022, Florida had its largest budget surplus in state history – $21.8 billion – more than 21 percent above the state budget for the fiscal year.
In Florida, we make the tough choices in our budget as part of our obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. Washington should be held to the same standard.
Congress should also consider legislation I’ve cosponsored to establish a bipartisan committee tasked with identifying and eliminating wasteful, duplicative and antiquated government programs and finally begin to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy.
To get our fiscal house in order, we also need to enact pro-growth policies that create jobs and revitalize the economy.
The nation’s debt is an albatross around the necks of our children and grandchildren, weighing down their ability to realize the American Dream. According to the latest data, each U.S. taxpayer holds $246,867 of the U.S. debt – and that number only creeps higher.
We need to end this reckless cycle of tax, spend and borrow that is bankrupting our nation once and for all. Just as every family in America has to live within its means, we need to force the federal government to do the same.
U.S. Rep.Vern Buchanan represents Florida's 16th Congressional District, which consists of Manatee County and parts of Hillsborough County. He is the co-chairman of the bipartisan Florida delegation and also the most senior Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
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