OPINION:
Meet Joe Biden, America’s drunken sailor.
When Mr. Biden first came to Washington during the previous mini-Ice Age, federal debt was about $450 billion — a quaint little figure when you think about it these days.
In the 48 years since Mr. Biden arrived on the banks of the Potomac, federal debt has exploded. Today, it stands at $28 trillion — a figure that is literally beyond comprehension.
If Carl Sagan were still alive and we asked him to explain the enormity of it, he would say, “Wait? How big is that?”
Mr. Biden would reply, apparently: “Not big enough.”
And Sagan would respond, “Wait? Who let Joe Biden be president?”
The last time Joe Biden was allowed near the White House, he tacked more than $8 trillion to the national debt — mostly for all those “shovel-ready” projects that were not ready. Instead of “shovel-ready,” America suffered through the slowest recession-recovery in modern times.
To Mr. Biden’s credit, it took him and President Obama eight years to blow through all that money. That’s always been Mr. Biden’s specialty: burning other people’s money in Washington.
Spending your money we have no hope of repaying — and sticking it to our children — is a bipartisan affair around here for people like Mr. Biden.
When President George W. Bush — a Republican — wanted to invade Iraq, Mr. Biden gladly cast his vote for the expensive adventure. Mr. Bush and Mr. Biden did not have any ideas for paying for the war so they just tossed it on the credit card.
Roughly $1.1 trillion. Because, really, there is nothing more conservative than going to war on the other side of the planet and borrowing the money to do it.
To give Mr. Bush the same benefit we give Mr. Obama, at least it took him five years to blow a trillion dollars in the desert.
Mr. Biden hasn’t been back in the White House three months yet as president and already he has blown through another $2 trillion that we don’t have.
Supposedly, it was a “COVID relief” bill but was actually packed with billions of dollars in unrelated junk including racial reparations for black farmers and goofball policies that will only hurt people already suffering from the pandemic.
Either way, it’s about the cost of two Iraq Wars — in just three months.
And now comes Mr. Biden with yet another proposal to spend another $2.3 trillion of money we don’t have. This one is for “infrastructure,” a word that Democrats have already begun torturing in order to include all their crazy pet projects.
And the good news is it is all bipartisan! Because, if there is one thing both parties in Washington always agree on it’s spending other people’s money they have no hope of ever paying off.
Not a bad strategy if you are 78 years old and have no intention of sticking around that long.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times. He can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com.
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