Why Dig Into Debt When You Can Soar?

Jane McGrath | February 04, 2010 4:00 PM

I was able to listen in on a bloggers conference call today as two congressmen, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA, Chief Deputy Republican Whip) and Jim Jordan (R-OH, Committee on the Budget Member), discussed today's House

vote to increase the debt limit. Congressman McCarthy noted that this was the "largest one-time increase in the debt limit ever," and larger than the GDPs of Ireland, Belgium and Poland... combined.

Regarding the "unprecedented spending, borrowing and tax increases," Congressman Jordan added that the OMB Director, Peter Orszag, admitted to Congressman Campbell the other day that the president's budget is "unsustainable." McCarthy then bemoaned how this extensive borrowing is threatening our liberty, making us beholden to other countries. He compared this to how the dollar originally became the world currency, when, after WWII, the U.S. declined a request for an interest-free, $5 billion loan to a war-ravaged Britain, choosing instead to loan half that amount with 2 percent interest.

The congressmen also discussed the president's proposed spending freeze. Because it only applies to a small percentage of the budget, Jordan referred to the freeze as "frankly a joke... like ordering four big macs and four large fries and -- oh yeah -- make that a diet coke." McCarthy emphasized the irony that Obama himself has signed spending bills that have increased non-defense discretionary spending a whopping 84 percent.