For many Americans, this is absurd and humiliating: The richest country in the history of the world is teetering on bankruptcy because our government can’t stop itself from spending, like a loathsome celebrity blaming bad behavior on some dubious new addiction.

◼ No surprise, then, that more than 60 percent of Americans believe Congress should not raise the federal debt ceiling, according to a recent CBS News poll. This does not mean they want to see America default, of course. Rather, it indicates a strong popular will to see our government stop its ruinous spending. - Arthur C. Brooks at The Weekly Standard

In the coming weeks and months, as the debt ceiling debate rages and new budget battles arise, we will hear more and more class-warfare rhetoric about corporate jets, miserly rich people, and the need for higher taxes. Free-enterprise advocates must be ready to make a three-part case. First, it is bad economics to tax our way out of the hole our government has dug for us. Second and more important, it betrays a lack of national moral fiber to say, in effect, “We are too weak to control our spending.” Third and most important of all, it is not “fair” in any traditional American understanding of the word to tax our way out of a spending problem.

Arthur C. Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute and author of The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future. At Amazon At conservativebookclub.com