Right now, our national debt is $31 trillion. That’s larger than our entire economy. In fact,
the ratio of our debt to our economy has never been higher.

We spend more on interest on this debt than we spend on our veterans. And as debt and
interest rates both go up, soon we’ll spend more on interest than we spend on our military
or even education. Where are our priorities as a country?

We should never have gotten into this situation in the first place, but decades of
irresponsible leaders in Washington from both parties put us in this position by spending
too much. Joe Biden alone has added some $6 trillion to our deficits—and it only cost us $4
trillion to win World War II.

What did we get in exchange for all this debt? A government that can’t even do its job. The
federal government can’t keep the border closed or our streets safe. The big-spending
Biden administration surrendered in Afghanistan and shut down our energy production.
We’re going broke and not getting a lot in return.

Democrats say our taxes aren’t high enough. But in fact, tax revenues are breaking records.
We pay plenty of taxes, but we’re still borrowing more than $1 trillion a year. We don’t have
a taxing problem—we have a spending problem.

Every dime the government spends comes from the pockets of the American people.
Politicians need to realize that it’s not their money—it’s the people’s money that they
worked hard to earn. They ought to start treating our tax dollars with respect.

Congress created the debt ceiling more than a century ago to stop the federal government
from taking on too much debt. Hitting the debt ceiling should set off alarm bells for the
government and taxpayers. But lately it’s become routine, and some liberals even want to
get rid of the debt limit altogether.

At some point we have to say enough is enough. If Congress had acted responsibly 10 or 20
years ago, then we wouldn’t need to take dramatic action. The longer we wait to spend
responsibly, the stronger the action we need to take.

Republicans in Congress have been united in saying we need to make a down payment on
reducing our deficit. But that’s not what Joe Biden wants to do.

First, Joe Biden ran up our spending for two years. Then he refused to even negotiate with
Republicans. Then, finally, Republicans got him to the negotiating table, but he stubbornly
refused to do what was necessary.

The Biden bill the Senate voted on this past week waived our debt limit altogether for the
next two years. It’s expected this will increase our national debt by another $4 trillion. The

President agreed to a handful of Republican ideas to bring down spending, but we are still
on pace to borrow another $15 trillion over the next decade. That is nowhere close to good
enough.

Over the last two years, the American people have suffered from the worst inflation in 40
years. Inflation is when too many dollars are chasing too few goods. Democrats have
flooded the country with government spending, and it’s no surprise that inflation followed.

To deal with this unprecedented debt crisis, we need to do two things: stop the reckless
spending and get our economy growing faster. Last week’s Biden bill didn’t accomplish
either one—so I voted no.

A recent Forbes study ranked Alabamians as #1 for being responsible with their budgets.
Washington, D.C. needs a little bit of Alabama common sense.

We’ve kicked the can down the road long enough. It’s time for Washington to follow
Alabamians’ lead and stop the reckless spending.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and HELP committees.