How would you like to find out that on top of the mountain of student loans you’ll have at the end of your education, Congress decided to send you one additional bill for $40,000? And that charge isn’t just for you. That’s the portion of the $12.3 trillion federal debt distributed among 300 million U.S. citizens.

I’m sure newborns can pay back the bill if we relax child labor laws a bit. We’ve all seen the warning signs for years, but representatives have failed to take action for more than a decade. Talking about the federal debt just isn’t sexy. There are too many numbers and long-term projections involved that leave all but the most die-hard bean-counters bored and uninterested. But you better keep your eye on those numbers. Social Security will be in the red in less than 10 years. One in every $10 the U.S. spends is wasted on paying the interest on our debt. In 2007, the Government Accountability Office estimated that in order to balance the budget in 2040, the U.S. could either double taxes or cut spending by 60 percent. And that was before two consecutive years of projected $1.3 trillion deficits.

Up until last week, discussion on the federal debt was stuck on a “who-did-what” side-show, distracting focus from the actual issue. How does criticizing George W. Bush’s terrible job of controlling spending make things better? He won’t be joining the pantheon of revered conservatives, seated at the right hand of Ronaldus Magnus, anytime soon. If Democrats felt the spending under Bush was wrong, they should take the steps necessary to fix it. Considering that until recently, bringing up the subject of debt was as welcome as swine flu, it seems clear that the real aspect of Bush’s spending that upset Democrats was only that he chose to spend money we didn’t have on two wars, and not a new entitlement program.

President Obama, frantically looking for a lifeline back to the center, seized on the issue of federal spending in last week’s State of the Union. Two of his major proposals included a reinstatement of “pay-as-you-go” laws and a three-year spending freeze. “Pay-as-you-go” would require any new spending or tax cuts proposals in Congress to be revenue neutral. Obama claimed in the radio address this weekend that “reinstating this law will help get us back on track, ensuring that every time we spend, we find somewhere else to cut.” Unfortunately, when this law was in place in the ’90s, it was easier for Congress to balance the books with adding a new tax increase onto every bill rather than finding something to cut.

When word of the spending freeze proposal began to leak, pundits on all sides wasted no time in blasting the idea. The spending freeze would affect domestic spending beginning on Oct. 1, with exemptions for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. MSNBC hosts began calling it “Hoover economics,” claiming that the only way to pull a country out of a recession is to spend, spend and spend some more. But after World War I, it wasn’t Hoover who made the Germans trade their wallets for wheelbarrows just so they could carry around enough money to buy bread. It was hyper-inflation brought about by the government deciding to print money when they maxed out their credit. Republicans in Congress were also quick to criticize the proposal, claiming it didn’t go far enough. While it’s true that the projected savings from the freeze would be fractions of the total amount, this change in direction is a welcome relief.

If the first step is admitting you have a problem, President Obama appears willing to commit the country to debt counseling with his latest proposals. Republicans ought to be cautious in their message in the coming months. The soured mood of the country and Scott Brown’s Massachusetts surprise have forced the president to look to his right flank. If Republicans bite this reluctantly out-stretched hand, then they run the danger of taking the blame for a partisan era that has made the public nauseous. A Senate proposal of a bipartisan “fiscal commission” was recently rejected by senior members of both parties. If Republicans could move their caucus to approve this effort and vote with supportive Democrats, the “party-of-no” branding given to every minority would be definitively shed.

Breaking State of the Union promises is as much a hobby in Washington as American flag lapels. We can only wait and see if Obama will live up to his new talking points. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the federal debt will have increased by more than $200,000. High interest rates and inflation prevent either party from giving away new hand-outs or starting wars. Obama’s new platform and spending freeze may be the equivalent of taking a pipette of water out of Lake Michigan, but it just might be enough to compel the actions that keep us from drowning.

Scott McAfee is a College junior from Kennesaw, Ga. He is president of Emory’s College Republicans.