The new Congress came in with a mission. That mission was to hold the line on bigger government. And the first real test of their sincerity will be the debt ceiling.

Going along with raising the debt ceiling is the kind of habit that this new Congress was sent to Washington to break. The old ways won't cut it anymore. We have to come up with new ways, even at the risk of sounding radical.

We've heard all the warnings about what happens if we don't raise the ceiling, some bordering on hysteria: Default… another financial crisis….the end of the world as we know it. But we also know the result of just going along. It was only a little more than a year ago that the debt ceiling was raised another $1.3 trillion. Does anyone doubt that this just encouraged Congress and the President to spend more money? If we raise the ceiling again, it will make it easier to spend even more.

For five straight years, from 1997 till 2002, the debt ceiling was exactly the same…$5.95 trillion. Then came 9/11, and the spending on the war -- but even that big increase was pale compared to the explosion of spending during the Pelosi/Obama years. And because of the Pelosi/Obama budgets, the debt increased 40% in just three years, from $8 trillion in January 2007 to more than $14 trillion by 2010.

Now, we understand that holding the line on the debt ceiling will only make sense if there are real cuts in our massive budget. You can't disconnect the two. But holding the line on the debt ceiling would force the hand of those who might be sitting on the fence about making real budget cuts, beginning with Obamacare and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. Those who say it can’t be done haven’t done their homework.

New Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Democratic economist Alice Rivlin already have put together a plan to reform Medicaid and Medicare. It moves government out of health care by giving seniors money toward the purchase of their own private insurance. And to pay for Medicaid, states would get block grants by the government with which they could direct their own payments.

The problem with this and every other sensible plan to reform health care is that it’s incompatible with Obamacare. The Ryan/Rivlin plan takes power away from the federal government.

This Congress -- this nation -- doesn't want that. And maybe the only way to prevent government from implementing something we don't want is by threatening to shut down government. We don't think that's necessary. We think there are plenty of ways to cut government before that would happen. But these folks aren't going to do it on their own. And they're not going to do it if everybody just wants to go along. Those who want to stop government from getting any bigger have to hold the line.