When Nancy Pelosi was elevated to Speaker of the House four years ago, she made the following promise in her inaugural address: “After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: pay as you go, NO NEW DEFICIT SPENDING. Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, NOT BURDEN THEM WITH MOUNTAINS OF DEBT.”
Well, the official numbers have just been released, and it turns out that she missed keeping her promise by – well, by a lot. In the first two years of her Speakership (the 110th Congress), $1.9 trillion of new deficit spending was added to the national debt; and in her third and fourth years (the 111th Congress), $3.2 trillion of deficit spending occurred.
To illustrate just how outrageous this level of deficit spending is, more debt was added in the 111th Congress (2009 and 2010) than in the first 100 Congresses added together – that’s more debt in the last two years than in the first 200 years of our nation’s existence!
Reversing this trend has got to be one of the new Congress’s top priorities when it gets sworn in next Wednesday, January 5th. I can assure you that it will be one of mine.
On another front, much of the nation is digging out from under record snows, blizzard conditions, and historic low temperatures. Europe is experiencing an Arctic freeze. This is one of the coldest Decembers in both North America and across Europe in the last 150 years.
And to what do some global warming alarmists attribute these record cold conditions? You guessed it – global warming! So global warming causes – global cooling. Give me a break.
Hope 2011, which is only three days away, is good to you and your loved ones. Stay warm.