Obama, Reid, Boehner Triangulate Toward Another Sellout on National Debt

The prospective deals on the national debt ceiling are no deal at all, says the conservative Heartland Institute.

Annual federal spending has gone from $1.8 trillion to $3.7 trillion in 10 years. The problem is runaway spending. Raising the debt ceiling simply allows government spending to keep running away from fiscal reality," says Steve Stanek, Heartland's research fellow for budget and tax policy.

The federal government currently borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends -- $4 billion of borrowed money every day. The Obama administration projects total federal debt will grow to $26 billion over the next decade. An agreement to cut somewhere between $1 trillion to $3 trillion from future deficits, as is being discussed, would leave $23 trillion to $25 trillion of debt.

S.T. Karnik, research director at the Chicago-based institute, notes:

The debt ceiling debate exemplifies the contemporary politics of fear. President Obama and congressional Democrats are paralyzed by fear that a cutback on government spending will further tank the economy, which it wouldnt, and stymie their attempts to buy votes from the variety of special interests that make up their always-shaky coalition, which it would.

"The Republicans press ahead with half-measures out of fear of being blamed for every child that goes hungry and every granny who has to pay a few dollars for the worlds greatest health care.

What the public clearly fears is Washingtons business-as-usual. Everybody knows the past few years gargantuan overspending is unsustainable and killing the economy. Real spending cuts are the only solution, but that would take courage, which only a few people in power have shown thus far.