I spent more than 30 years running businesses before I ever set foot on the House floor.
In the business world, there is a simple rule that never changes: you cannot spend more than you take in year after year and expect to stay open.
Every entrepreneur and small business owner in Florida knows this.
So does every family balancing a checkbook.
It’s time Washington learned it, too.
National debt keeps soaring
The national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, a number so large it’s difficult to picture.
To put it in perspective, that’s more than $300,000 owed for every household in America, a bill no family ever agreed to, and no family should have to afford.
The debt now stands at more than 100% of the size of our entire economy, a level that warrants extreme concern.
Additionally,
interest on the debt is growing out of control as it surpasses defense to become the federal government's second largest expense.
We’ve borrowed against the future before, but always to win a war or survive a depression, never simply to avoid making a hard choice.
If Washington continues on its current course, with no more wars, no recession and no major new programs, the debt is projected to hit a staggering $64 trillion within the next decade.
Add more than $80 trillion in unfunded promises to Social Security and Medicare and the picture becomes even more sobering.
These are promises we’ve made to seniors who spent their whole lives paying in, and to young people who haven’t even cast their first vote yet.
As representatives of the American people, we are here to serve their best interests, and it is not in their interests to hand the next generation a bill this country can't afford.
In January 2007, the national debt stood at just under $9 trillion.
In less than two decades, it has more than quadrupled.
Think about that.
It took this country more than 230 years, through two world wars, the Great Depression and the Cold War, to reach $9 trillion in debt. It has taken us less than 20 years to add more than $31 trillion on top of it.
This did not happen under one party or one president – both sides of the aisle share the blame, and both sides need to be part of the solution.
That is why I authored H.J. Res. 3, a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget, as both my first piece of legislation when I arrived in Congress and my first bill to introduce in each Congress since.
I believe nothing else we can do in Washington matters much if we do not get our fiscal house in order first.
Time for balanced budget amendment
A balanced budget amendment simply says what every Florida family and every small business already lives by: Congress cannot spend money it does not have without a real plan to pay it back.
It would force Washington to set priorities, cut what does not work and stop kicking the hardest decisions down the road to our kids and grandkids.
This is not a Republican idea or a Democratic idea.
It is widely understood, and it deserves support from members on both sides of the aisle who care about the country the next generation will inherit.
I’ve heard the argument that we can simply tax our way out of this problem.
But I don’t believe the answer is to reach deeper into the pockets of the people who are already carrying this country.
The math does not support it either.
Even the most aggressive tax increases on the wealthiest Americans would not come close to closing deficits of this size, let alone cover the cost of the new spending some in Washington keep proposing.
Working families and small businesses didn’t run up this debt, and they shouldn’t be the ones to foot the bill for it.
The only honest path forward is to control spending, grow the economy and stop treating the congressional credit card as if it has no limit.
I did not come to Washington to leave behind a bigger problem than the one I found.
I came here to run government the way I ran my businesses, with discipline, accountability and an eye on long-term success.
Nearly 20 years later, that mission is more urgent than it has ever been.
The debt crisis we are approaching will not announce itself with a single dramatic headline.
It will show up in higher interest rates, a weaker dollar, less money for the priorities that matter and fewer opportunities for the next generation.
It will reach into the everyday lives of Americans nationwide.
We still have time to change course, but that window is closing quickly.
I’m asking my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in getting the national debt under control.
Florida families balance their budgets every month. It is about time Washington does the same.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., is the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of the Health Subcommittee. Prior to serving in Congress, Buchanan was in business for over 30 years and chaired both the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and Florida Chamber of Commerce.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Floridians pay the price for Washington's excess spending | Opinion
