The time to stop kicking the can down the road is here:

Moody’s has previously warned that when interest owed reaches 18 to 20 percent of revenue, the nation would be in line for a downgrade. By 2018, the CBO reports that the U.S. will reach that level if Obama’s ten-year budget is enacted.

That would mean higher borrowing costs, making it far more expensive for the U.S. to refinance its massive $14 trillion debt. Right now, those payments net $197 billion every year, but just fast forward ten years and the situation looks far worse. In 2020, the CBO baseline estimates that net interest owed on the debt will total about $751 billion yearly.

To put that into perspective, in 2020, every man, woman, and child in America would owe $2442 — just for interest on the debt. By then, of course, the debt will total over $25 trillion, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That’s $80,645 of debt for every American. How will that ever be paid back?

Unless something is done soon, it never will be.

It is now up to House Republicans to put serious spending cuts on the table. Barack Obama is merely proposing a discretionary spending freeze, which will institutionalize spending at its record-high levels and do nothing to decrease the deficit. This is a pathetic proposal that merits no serious consideration.

Meanwhile, Representatives Jim Jordan and Scott Garrett and Senator Jim DeMint have proposed $173 billion of discretionary spending cuts over the next two years, $16.1 billion in cuts to Medicaid, end the ‘stimulus’ saving $45 billion, and ending government ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saving another $30 billion. These cuts represent a good start, and could be attached to a continuing resolution due to expire on March 4th. But more must be done.

Congress also needs to put so-called “mandatory” spending on the table for immediate consideration. This spending is on autopilot, and if Congress does not act, will continue to increase year on end from $2.1 trillion today to $3.3 trillion in 2020, according to the CBO.

As much as $460 billion of cuts could be attached to an upcoming vote to increase the national debt ceiling above $14.294 trillion. Combined with the Garrett-Jordan-DeMint proposal, the savings would total $725 billion, almost cutting the deficit in half.

If coupled with a flattening of the tax code with the elimination of double-taxation, tax credits and exemptions, along with significantly bringing down overall rates, a massive economic expansion would take place. The increased revenues would cover the rest of the $775 billion deficit.

A fiscal reckoning is coming, and once again, policymakers have a choice to make: To take care of it now while it is still manageable or to wait hoping that it will magically go away. The choice seems obvious.

You know what else seems obvious? That massive government spending on unfunded entitlements, coupled with an expansion of the bureaucratic state and a concomitant restriction on free enterprise and markets, will lead to a stifled economy, high unemployment, and frustrated — and weakened — private sector.

So.

Just saying.