There is a familiar game now being played in Washington. The two sides are locked in a stalemate, blaming one another for being extreme and unwilling to compromise. The media and others increase the pressure by promising catastrophe if a deal is not reached by some arbitrary deadline. The American people are fed up, frustrated and angry.
Utahns have already witnessed this game during the debate over the continuing budget resolution to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year and previously for TARP, health care reform and the stimulus.
Unsurprisingly, the deals that resulted from this political gamesmanship did not ultimately fix the problems they purported to solve. Banks still aren't lending enough, health insurance costs are rising and national unemployment remains above 9 percent.
Today's debate is over the debt ceiling. Unfortunately, the rhetoric heard from politicians and the media ignores the central issue and assures that we will again not fix the problem.
That's because the problem is not the debt ceiling; the problem is the debt.
The federal government is reaching a debt crisis because it continues to overpromise and underfund. As the federal government increases its debt, which stands at more than $14.3 trillion and over 95 percent of our gross domestic product, economic growth diminishes. The private sector's ability to expand and create jobs — thus providing additional tax revenue — becomes harder as employers' resources are sapped to pay for more government and more interest.
Credit rating agencies are now warning that if we don't address our long-term debt, they will reduce America's AAA credit rating.
The federal government is running on autopilot. Congress hasn't passed a budget in more than two years. It just keeps spending and borrowing with no real direction.
Utah has made tough choices, balanced its budget every year and kept its financial house in order. Simply put, Washington needs to follow Utah's lead.
Paralyzed by politics, Washington rarely makes the difficult choices to fix the fundamental problems we face. In this case, eliminating our deficits and reducing our debt would require immediate and, in some cases, painful spending cuts. We must limit spending over the next decade to eventually zero-out our annual deficits. And above all, we will have to fundamentally change the rules of how Washington spends taxpayer money.
In order to get our spending and borrowing under control, we must support the "Cut, Cap and Balance" Act. It is the only plan that actually begins to fix the problem.
Under Cut, Cap and Balance, spending is immediately cut by more than $100 billion, statutory caps are put in place to significantly reduce our annual deficit through 2021 and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution must be sent to the states for ratification before Congress can raise the debt ceiling.
The Washington establishment is already attacking the proposal because Cut, Cap and Balance is not the kind of political solution Washington loves. Instead of adopting the status quo — more spending, more borrowing, no reform — this plan will require structural, binding change and force Washington to prioritize spending.
The president claims we must lift the debt ceiling or face economic catastrophe. But Republicans, and now the credit rating agencies, are worried we face far greater consequences if we don't immediately address our long-term debt and reform how Washington spends money. Cut, Cap and Balance is the only reasonable compromise that gives the president his debt ceiling increase but also substantively reforms spending.
We must end the political gamesmanship that changes nothing and makes the debt problem worse. Cut, Cap and Balance is the right answer to the real question.
Mike Lee is a U.S. senator from Utah. Gary R. Herbert is the governor of Utah.