Kay Hagan and Greensboro News & Record's Editorial Board

"North Carolina’s Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan was one of only 19 who voted against a measure that extends tax cuts for all Americans...

Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina supported it, despite the huge objection cited by Hagan: “This bill would add $858 billion to the national debt without offering a long-term solution.”

"Senate Tax-Cut Plan Would Add $857 Billion to U.S. Debt,"
or will the Tax Deal really cost at least $1,472.92 trillion?

$857 Billion @ 4% x 30 years = $1,472.92 trillion

$857 Billion @ 5% x 40 years = $1,983.56 trillion

$857 Billion @ 6% x 50 years = $2,706.77 trillion

$857 Billion @ 7% x 75 years = $4,523.35 trillion

Burr took a different view: “The tax bill was more about economic policy than it was about fiscal policy,” he said Wednesday. Extending current tax rates “was vital from the standpoint of tax predictability.”

It’s predictable now that those tax rates, even for the wealthy, won’t bump up when this extension runs out in two years.

...Hagan, who said she couldn’t stomach further tax breaks for millionaires, allowed that she supported extending tax cuts for the middle class. But, added up, the total cost was unacceptable, she said Tuesday.

She also noted the recent report issued by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson’s deficit-reduction commission. It’s time for Congress to stop making “empty promises” about deficit reduction. “We can’t put this burden on our children,” Hagan said.

She’s right.

Congress can always find reasons to justify deficit spending — if it ignores serious warnings.

Credit agency Moody’s, for example, said that “unless Congress gets its act together, it could see a once unthinkable downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on its watch, which could balloon U.S. borrowing costs and make our financing position much more costly,” Fortune reported Tuesday.

“We can’t keep borrowing from the Chinese,” Hagan said.

Obama and most members of Congress apparently wanted a deal at any price, and that’s what they got.

But, added to the debt already run up over the years, it may be more than the country and future taxpayers can afford. Washington has got to start putting its finances in order.

Hagan’s record isn’t impeccable — she’s requested hundreds of earmarks for North Carolina projects in the 2011 budget, the Civitas Institute reports — but she’s taking a stand now.

Unless more senators do the same, the country’s bills will bury it."

Greensboro News & Record's Editorial Board

If some lose their whole fortunes,
they will drag many more down with them.

…the whole system of credit and finance…here at Rome
…is inextricably bound up with the revenues of the Asiatic province.

If those revenues are destroyed,
our whole system of credit will come down with a crash.

…The national budget must be balanced.

The public debt must be reduced.

The arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.

Payments to foreign governments must be reduced
if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt.

People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
Roman Constitutionalist