At current U.S. government spending rate, national debt will equal GOP in 10 years

Budget: Massive deficits as far as the eye can see mean more than just a lot of debt. They mean slower economic growth, fewer jobs and higher prices for decades to come. The only way out: sharp cuts in spending.

To say that the deficits of the current White House are extraordinary and unprecedented is almost to underplay the reality. From 2009 through 2012, we will add as much to the nation's debts as we did in the first 234 years of America's existence.

We're not among those who think deficits are always and everywhere a bad thing. Indeed, if kept small, deficits really don't matter. It's like carrying a small balance on a credit card. As long as it doesn't grow to crowd out other spending, it doesn't matter much.

But the coming wave of deficit spending is alarming by any measure. Over the next 10 years, according to number crunchers at the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. will rack up $13 trillion in debt - an amount nearly equal to our entire current economic output.

This year alone, the deficit will be an astounding 11.2% of gross domestic product, or $1.4 trillion. Over the next 10 years, the deficit will average 5% of GDP. That compares with an average of 2.4% from 1970 to 2008.

Why is this happening? A slow economy, of course, hurts revenues. But the true culprit is spending. In the postwar era, we spent an average of about 20% of GDP on the federal government. Over the next decade, it will average 23.5% - a real gain of 18% a year.