Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Tuesday predicted that the U.S. would default on its debt.

“When a country is indebted to the degree that we’re indebted, the country always defaults,” the 2012 GOP presidential candidate said on the House floor. “We will default because the debt is unsustainable.”

Paul predicted that the U.S. government would dodge the best solution, which is to impose real spending cuts.

“The reason we don’t cut spending is, one side loves entitlements and one side loves war,” he said.

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But he warned against the temptation of simply continuing to send out government checks backed with more borrowed money. He said choosing this course would mean default would come in the form of significant inflation and a further erosion of the dollar.

“If we don’t understand this, this default will not be because we don’t send out the checks,” Paul said. “We will send out the checks. It will be defaulted on because people will get their money back, or they will get their Social Security checks, and it won’t buy anything.”

He warned this is a “much, much worse” solution.

Paul was one of several Republicans who spoke Tuesday morning on the House floor in anticipation of the GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance”

bill. Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) was one who spoke in favor of the bill, and said higher spending under the Obama administration was a proven failure.

“The tragic reality is that the president’s big spending policies only made things worse,” Herger said. “Now, with the national debt at crisis levels, he is standing in the way of common sense solutions, offering only lectures, not leadership.

“As a matter of conscience, this Congress cannot support allowing President Obama to continue to steer America’s debt past a point of no return,” he added.

Rep. Virginia Foxx Virginia Ann FoxxHouse passes bill to allow private lawsuits against public schools for discriminatory practices Pelosi huddles with chairmen on surprise billing but deal elusive House fails to override Trump veto of bill blocking DeVos student loan rule MORE (R-N.C.) said Democrats have no plan for handling the debt crisis, citing the Senate’s rejection earlier this year of the Obama administration’s proposed 2012 budget.

“There is no leadership on the part of the Democrats,” she said.

Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.) was one of the few Democrats who spoke on the debt ceiling Tuesday morning. He argued that Republicans were using the myth of former President Reagan to justify efforts to tie the debt-ceiling increase to spending cuts.

Quigley said that if Reagan could see the current debate, “he’d see his most dedicated followers using his name as justification for saying no to honoring our debts. He’d see his legacy used to play chicken with the world’s greatest economic engine.”