By Veronique de Rugy

When times are hard financially, families frequently let their credit card balance expand. But they also slash expenses to meet their new financial situation. They stop going out for dinner, for instance, or take their vacation locally instead of abroad. They might even downsize their house.

When economies fall into recession, governments too tend to let their “credit card balances” expand: Their budget deficits explode. Slashing spending, though, is regarded as a step too far.

The U.S. government is not the exception that proves the rule. During the economic crisis of the past 18 months, Washington has increased its deficit fast and hard. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deficit grew from 1.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2007 to 10 percent in 2010—roughly $1.4 trillion. Meanwhile, the consensus on both the right and the left seems to be that cutting spending is simply impossible.

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Debtocracy: As a president, it’s one thing to know you have a big fiscal problem. It’s quite another when a panel you appointed tells you the policies you have in mind will only make things worse.

That’s what happened Sunday, when leaders of President Obama’s deficit commission offered up the darkest of outlooks for our financial future — calling current trends in U.S. budgets a “cancer” that will “destroy the country from within” unless halted soon.

Pretty sobering words. Let’s hope Rahm “Never Waste A Good Crisis” Emanuel is unable to find something to exploit there. But in case Democrats in the White House and Congress think this is their golden chance to raise taxes and permanently increase the size of government, they should think again.

“We can’t tax our way out,” admitted Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of Obama’s deficit commission and formerly President Clinton’s chief of staff. “We’ve got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that.”

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As the Western world’s leaders pledged to wean themselves from government stimulus programs this past weekend, President Barack Obama continued to call for expanded spending, claiming the economy cannot recover without it.

While there was an agreement among developed nations at the Group of 20 summit to halve their annual deficits within three years, Obama continued his expansionist call for spending. Yet his solutions for the economy are mired in spending money we don’t have — running up the nation’s credit card.

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