| US Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) |
He ran against the recently deceased US Senator Arlen Specter in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate Primary. Then President George W. Bush endorsed the moderate-liberal incumbent who then became a Democrat in 2009. This same Democrat lost his own primary battle in 2010, in which one attack ad featured him repeating "I switched parties so that I could get reelected." Toomey took the GOP nomination and the victory, along with the rest of the Tea Party caucus which wiped out Democratic gains from 2006 and 2008 in the House.
Pat Toomey is a serious conservative. He refuses to play games, he understands the fiscal mess that this country is facing, and he wants the President and the Democratic Congress to do something about it.
On "Morning Joe", Toomey commented all the tax increases in the world would not solve the debt problem in the United States. Although he voted for the fiscal cliff deal at the stroke of midnight 2012, he has shifted gears demanding cuts or no deals.
Blunt yet clear, Toomey asserted to the "Morning Joe" Round table that the Republicans in Congress should be willing to force a government shut down over the debt ceiling if the President and his Democratic colleagues refuse to cut massive spending. Mark Halperin, one of the guest commentators on the show with Joe Scarborough, chomped down on this blunt suggestion: "If you let the government shut down, then markets will be in chaos and we will face a debt downgrade."
Toomey was unmoved. If that's the leverage that Republicans must use in order to get the federal government to cut spending, then the Republicans must take that course of action, he responded.
Debt cannot define a nation. A nation indebted today will be indicted tomorrow by its children and grandchildren. Thomas Jefferson volleyed nothing but condemnation at any nation which would tolerate leveraging nothing but debt against our future:
"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
Thomas Jefferson went so far as to propose an Amendment to the Constitution which would forbid debt.
Right now, if every American had to chip in in order to pay the current national debt, every one of us would owe $50,000. In Greece, which currently ranks as the most indebted nation in the world, every citizen owes $30,000.
The spending spree must stop. The federal government cannot continue to borrow money from foreign creditors who at any time can forgo lines of credit. This program of indebtedness cannot last. Senator Toomey's proposal may sound incoherent and insane, yet if risking default is the only way to cut spending, reform entitlements, and simplify the taxcode, then federal government departments across the nation should brace for a shot-down in the near future.