U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo's message to the Senate and House today was a somber one: "Right now the United States faces a crisis, a fiscal crisis," he said, saying the national debt is out of control. "You cannot continue as a nation to carry that kind of a debt level." Crapo said, "We are not changing course yet." He served on the president's fiscal commission that proposed $4 trillion in spending cuts and tax increases over 10 years; but the commission needed 14 of its 18 members to vote for the plan for it to be presented to Congress, and it got only 11 votes, Crapo's included. "So the commission report did not get put before Congress for a vote," he said.  "There are some of us now who are ... negotiating to see if we can put something of that scope together to put before the Senate. ... So that's where we are. I don't know if we will get something. I do know that we have no real alternative but to get something and move forward."

Crapo said if the nation doesn't change course, "Frankly we lose the confidence of the bond markets that we will be able to service our own debt." That, he said, would lead to skyrocketing interest rates and inflation and devaluation of the dollar. "The economic consequences are literally of the scope that they will jeopardize the American dream."

He said, "My message to you today is that the fight is on, and it's a fight that we must win. It's not a Democrat or a Republican fight. It's a fight for America."