On the recordJuly 5, 2011
I, as well as many Americans, am concerned about the future of our country. I am concerned we may not be able to continue to pay our bills. I am concerned one day in the near future we could look like Greece. I do not want to see America rioting in the streets because we cannot pay our bills. That day is coming. It is coming in the near future if we do not wake up to the problem. I am not alone. Members of the President's own administration have said that the No. 1 threat to our national security is our national debt. It is out of control. August 2 is fast approaching. August 2 is when the debt ceiling is reached. What is the debt ceiling? It is like reaching your credit card limit. If you have a $5,000 a month credit card limit, and you have reached it, do you call the company and say: Give me more credit or do you try to live within your means? Do you try to only spend what money you have? We as a country have been spending money we do not have. But it has now gotten out of control. We owe China $1.1 trillion. We owe Japan nearly $1 trillion. A spending addiction is our problem. It is out of control. We are spending $10 billion a day. Of that $10 billion a day, we are borrowing $4 billion. We are spending $100,000 every second. Of that $100,000 a second, we are borrowing $45,000 a second. We are paying for our debt at historically low interest rates, about 2.5 percent. But many of us have lived through a time when interest rates were much higher.…
