New NRCC Video: National Debt Crisis 101

Washington — As Democrats in Washington continue looking for a scapegoat to avoid taking responsibility for their reckless big-government spending spree, the National Republican Congressional Committee today released a new video providing a common sense explanation of the federal government’s debt crisis, how we got there and who exactly is responsible. Proving to be unwilling to rein in spending, President Obama and Democrats in Washington are guaranteeing that they would rather keep spending money recklessly, borrowing more from countries like China and letting future American generations inherit the problem.

“As the clock ticks down, President Obama continues to ignore his responsibility to promote economic recovery by dragging struggling American families kicking and screaming in the direction of an ever-looming economic catastrophe,” said NRCC Communications Director Paul Lindsay. “Even in the face of a debt crisis, Democrats refuse to accept responsibility for their wasteful spending that not only led us to the debt crisis we face today, but will ultimately crush economic recovery.”

The transcript for the ad is as follows:

You’ve probably heard a little something about the federal government’s debt problem, and you’re probably wondering how we got here.

Well, Every year, the federal government takes in a certain amount of money through taxes, fees, and other revenue.

And every year the government pays for things like national defense, highways, education, Social Security, Medicare, etc.

When the costs of those expenses exceed the incoming revenue, you have a budget deficit.

So, in order to pay the bills, the government must borrow the difference… which they do… from individuals, businesses, governments and other organizations. This is the National Debt.

Like a credit card with a credit limit, the Federal Government is authorized by Congress to borrow what’s needed to pay the government’s bills – as long as – the total borrowing does not exceed a certain amount, we call this – the debt ceiling.

The problem is that The U.S. government runs a deficit nearly every year. These annual budget deficits have added up over time, increasing our national debt. In order to pay the bills, the President has asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling and throughout our history Congress has generally said “Okay!”

In fact, since 1962, Congress passed 74 separate measures to raise the debt ceiling.

Thanks to President Obama and Congressional Democrats; federal spending exceeded revenue by $1.6 trillion last year, This was the largest deficit in our nation’s history.

In order to pay for all this deficit spending, Democrat leaders passed a debt ceiling increase of $1.9 trillion, the largest single increase in the debt ceiling…ever.

In fact, Since President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the national debt has increased by $3.7 trillion and the total outstanding National Debt has exceeded $14 trillion.

To put that in perspective, it took the U.S. from 1776 until 1992 to accumulate the same amount of debt that President Obama accumulated in two and a half years. We’re gonna have to check this out, but this has to be a record too.

The President is now requesting that Congress raise the debt ceiling again, in order to continue spending, and spending and spending.

We have hit this point not because the debt ceiling is too low, or we don’t have enough revenue, but because their spending is just too high.

House Republicans don’t want to add to our debt, but are willing to raise the debt ceiling to meet our country’s previous obligations, but only if the President agrees to cut up the credit cards, stop the spending, lower the deficit to bring down our national debt and enact true reforms to ensure our nation’s prosperity.

Did I mention China? Probably should have mentioned China…