Senator Obama Was Right.
On March 16, 2006, U.S. Senator Barack Obama opposed lifting the federal statutory debt limit, arguing:
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.
Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is "trillion'' with a "T.'' That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President's budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion. . . .
Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just 5 years. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that "the buck stops here.'' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
In view of Senator Obama's prescient words, it is clear that there is nothing partisan about Compact for America's goal of ending the federal government's absurdly unlimited and unilateral capacity to borrow.
If anything, Senator Obama's case is much stronger today. The national debt is now approaching $18 Trillion, more than twice what the national debt was when Senator Obama warned against raising the federal debt limit.
The fact that President Obama has disregarded the wisdom of his former self also proves that sending a new team to Washington will never fix the national debt.
Instead, we must compact for a balanced budget now.
