We are less than a month away from the State of the Union address, and now that he's back from his extended and expensive vacation, I'm sure President Obama is hard at work on planning his policies for the coming year.

But if history is any guide, we shouldn't be putting too much stock in what he says-- especially surrounding the debt ceiling debate and the spending struggle.

For example, let's go all the way back to Republican hero Ronald Reagan in the early 80s, he told the nation: "The deficit problem is a clear and present danger to the basic health of our Republic."          

How bad was the problem? The national debt was under $1.5 trillion.

Fast forward a decade...he was right - in the nearly 10 years between Reagan's comments and his, the debt grew to $4 trillion!

But it's not just Republican Presidents over the years vowing to trim the government's debt. Check out what President Clinton had to say, only three years after President Bush. "Should we cut the deficit more? Well of course we should. Of course we should."

Of course we should - but we didn't!

The national debt was nearing the $5 trillion mark in 1995, but at the time of that speech the debt was close to reaching $9 trillion!

And then there's the current commander in chief, I'll let the pictures speak for itself:

-The national debt has now topped $14 trillion--that number is practically inconceivable.      

It took just seven months to go from $13 trillion to $14!

Our debt ceiling is just under $14.3 trillion, so we're weeks away from crashing through that level. And what to do about that ceiling will surely have congress fighting back and forth for the foreseeable future.

The time for excuses is over. What we have is a spending problem and  let's cut spending - and actually live within our means.

 

Be sure to catch the Willis Report on the FOX Business Network every weekday from 5-6pm ET.