Recently, the House and Senate passed pay-as-you-go rules and sent them to President for his signature. It was nothing short of a battle to get it done, but the passage of these rules represents a victory for our country’s fiscal future and the national debt.

Pay-as-you-go, also known as “PAYGO,” is a tool to force the federal government to spend within its means. It’s a simple concept practiced by families and businesses across South Dakota: You don’t spend what you can’t afford.

These common-sense rules were created by a Republican President and Democratic Congress in 1990, and extended by a Democratic President and Republican Congress in 1997. Not coincidentally, that was the last time when Congress balanced its budget.

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However, under the previous administration, these rules were allowed to lapse. With no mechanism for restraint, the deficit exploded, most directly because of the massive tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and the Medicare Part D benefit.

Since that time, under both Democratic and Republican Congresses and Administrations, the Blue Dogs have been sounding the alarm on our country’s reckless fiscal path and the importance of getting statutory PAYGO back on the books.

The debt has risen to the level of a serious national security risk. Reinstituting statutory PAYGO rules will force us to rein in spending so that, ultimately, we do not have to rely on China to pay for our priorities.

Statutory PAYGO will help limit the size of deficits. Larger deficits mean a higher national debt, which in turn means that a greater proportion of the budget must be spent paying interest on the debt. The interest we already pay each year on the national debt is more than we spend on education and veterans combined.

Getting to this point was difficult. The Blue Dogs had to work very hard, including among our own leadership and the administration, to secure a commitment for a vote on the House floor and the votes for passage.

We must also acknowledge that our fiscal problem is so large, no single tool like PAYGO is going to solve it. Some critics have rightly pointed out that PAYGO isn’t a perfect, silver bullet solution — and I couldn’t agree with them more. PAYGO is just a start. If we do not pay for our priorities today, we are merely passing the bill to our children and grandchildren.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is a U.S. Representative for the state of South Dakota and is a member of the Democratic Party.