Here are the facts: Our national debt was $14.1 trillion in February 2011. In the decade since, we have added nearly another $20 trillion to that total with bipartisan enthusiasm. That’s over $94,000 for every American.

Never in the history of our nation have we so quickly amassed so much debt. Several presidents and both parties played a role in getting us here. While I am proud that the Inflation Reduction Act last year directed $300 billion to deficit reduction — the largest down payment in decades — we must do more.

Democrats and Republicans seem to want to blame each other rather than come to grips with the reality that we must raise the debt limit and rein in the out-of-control spending that threatens Social Security, Medicare and our national defense.

[It’s great to see Manchin take a stand on this … except that Manchin got head-faked by Chuck Schumer into backing a climate-change-subsidy spendapalooza last August, and was rewarded for that by having Joe Biden summon hundreds of billions of dollars out of nowhere for his unconstitutional bailout of Academia. Perhaps Manchin should take some responsibility for that sequence of events and the threat to the national debt it created.

To respond to Manchin’s plan: Capping annual discretionary spending growth at 1% is a start, but it’s not much of one. It’s better than nothing, but (a) future Congresses won’t stick to it, and (b) all that does is perpetuate the annual deficit spending that got us into this mess. It avoids any hard decisions on spending and taxes, and any discussion of curbing the federal government’s reach to allow it to live within its means. It’s earnest, perhaps, but not serious. — Ed]