The only thing better than an op-ed by Marco Rubio...

...is an op-ed by Marco Rubio, and also Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson.

The five senators cooperated to write an op-ed published in POLITICO earlier today, advocating for a balanced budget:

POLITICO | Time for a cut, cap & balance budget

The most important policy imperative in the world today is for the United States to balance its budget. Though the reasons we must do so are economic, the reasons we should are fundamentally moral.

Everything our republic means to our citizens, and everything America means to the world – friend and foe alike – depends on our ability to pay our bills and honor our debts.

The full faith and credit of the United States — on which depends our reputation and, ultimately, our security, prosperity and freedom — is at risk today as never before. In recent years, under presidents and Congresses of both parties, we have racked up yawning deficits and mushrooming debt that now pose a danger to America as we know it.

Without immediate action to control federal spending, deficits will continue to grow as a proportion of gross domestic product, and our accumulated national debt will soon reach world-destabilizing levels.

Washington can no longer afford to delude itself or the American people about the threat of the looming debt crisis. Our choice is no longer between a (seemingly) painless status quo and painful budget cuts. The status quo is crumbling...

Our course is unsustainable. The Congressional Budget Office has stated it can no longer make long-term budget estimates because our projected level of debt causes the computer models to break down somewhere in the 2040s. These trends aren’t those of a super power in decline, but a banana republic in the making – and a global economic anchor.

That’s why last year we co-sponsored a balanced budget amendment that would have, for the first time, not only forced Congress to get control of spending, but bound future Congresses to do the same.

We called on Congress to cut unnecessary, and unconstitutional, spending immediately, cap future spending in line with average historical revenues and send a balanced budget constitutional amendment to the states for ratification.

As Congress begins a new budget season, we stand by that call...

Read the rest here.