Last week, Heritage Action, along with the Family Research Council and Club for Growth called for a path to balance. Balancing the budget within ten years would of course entail entitlement reforms as well as cuts to discretionary spending. Indeed, what "mostly drives our trillion-dollar deficit and our $16 trillion debt are unfunded entitlement promises."
Yesterday, House leadership has put support behind this plan. Speaker John Boehner said:
Chairman Paul Ryan has worked hard with the Budget Committee to outline the kind of reforms that we would put in place to bring real fiscal responsibility here to Washington. And I think the American people understand that you can't continue to spend money that you don't have. It's time for us to come to a plan that will in fact balance the budget over the next 10 years. It's our commitment to the American people, and we hope the Senate will do their budget as they should have done over the last four years.
Heritage Action's CEO Michael Needham applauded the move and emphasized, "Now, the House must fight to enact the policies necessary to achieve a 10-year balance, as scored by CBO, and attach them to any future increases in the debt ceiling."
Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) was also forward looking (sub. req'd):
Those with the influence look me in the eye and say this House will produce a budget that balances in 10 years. And there's gonna be some tough stuff in there, but it's telling the truth, it's reality... This is going to be the ultimate test of the relevancy of those we entrust with those leadership positions. And I believe there'd be hell to pay if they squander this.
In addition, Democrats are waning in their opposition. The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) on Tuesday saying President Obama "would not oppose a short-term solution to the debt limit."
For years, our federal government has taken us down the road of reckless spending and radical government expansion; that path has been worn bare and left us in a dire situation: trillion dollar deficits, a $16 trillion debt, and $48 trillion in unfunded promises. That is why it is absolutely essential that the path to balance becomes a reality.