THIS DEBT IS LIKE A CANCER. Speaking at the National Governors Association annual meeting, the co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future.

[A]t present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," [Alan] Simpson said.

"We can't grow our way out of this," [Erskine] Bowles said. "We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can't tax our way out.... The reality is we've got to do exactly what you all do every day as governors. We've got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that."

An Instapundit reader asks if this debt-as-cancer thing makes Congress the equivalent of Big Tobacco. Instapundit’s reply? “Worse: Big Tobacco had to persuade you to smoke.”