Ryan says tackling U.S. debt problem is moral challenge

Rep. Paul Ryan R-WI said on Thursday that reducing the U.S. national debt is a moral challenge.

Ryan, in a blog for the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington this week, said it was imperative to tackle the previous two years of trillion dollar annual deficits in the federal government's budget and a national debt above $14 trillion before they tackle us.

Ryan is the head of the House Budget Committee.

We must also recognize that our nation's debt problem isn't just a fiscal challenge involving dollars and cents. It's a moral challenge involving questions of principle and purpose. The size of the budget is a symptom of deeper causes, and it points to different ideas about government, he said.

He framed the challenges the U.S. is facing in terms of a struggle other civilizations have faced.

Exhausted peoples chose to let others take care of them instead of caring for themselves, he said.

We can choose to relegate America to another chapter in the history of declining nations, he said.

The case for limited government cannot be taken for granted, he said.

Let's choose to put proper limits on our government and unleash the initiative and imagination of the world's most exceptional people, he added.