Cagle Post: Debt Limit Breached

Our national debt surpassed $14.294 trillion today, breaking through the debt ceiling set forth by Congress. How America got to this point is crystallized in the Obama Administration’s own Fiscal Year 2012 budget. It was released just three months ago and, despite our country being knee deep in an enormous fiscal crisis, does not mention any meaningful entitlement reform at all. In fact, President Obama said at the time that it was not his place to offer a plan to bring down America’s debt: “…if you look at the history of how these deals get done, typically it’s not because there’s an Obama plan out there.”

A President has to lead, but when it comes to the national debt, President Obama has been MIA. Without any leadership from the White House the burden falls to Congress. Over a thousand people took Citizens United’s Facebook poll over the weekend, and an overwhelming majority believes that Congress will not have the courage to reform Medicare and Social Security this year. To bring down our debt, real reform of entitlement programs must be done. If not, the national debt will continue to spiral out of control making life that much more difficult for future generations.

The Treasury Department can still pay America’s creditors up until August 2nd, at that point if a deal on raising the debt ceiling is not reached in Congress then America will default on its obligations. There is still time for a deal to be reached, but that deal must include real cuts and reforms or we will be back at this same point again soon, only with higher debt. Enacting the cuts necessary to get us back on stable ground will be both painful and difficult. It will take a courageous coalition of Americans willing to do the right thing for our children and grandchildren; something President Obama has failed to do so far.

Read the full op-ed here