December 13, 2010 9:32PM # Selective Deficit Outrage By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Sen. Mark Udall [made the national news today](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017440326206276.html) with his excoriation of the Senate bill for not raising taxes. “A ticking time bomb,” [he said](http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=837): > “Just over one week ago, the Democratic and Republican chairmen of President Obama’s deficit commission called our national debt a ‘cancer’ that is threatening our country from within. They are right. A massive budget deficit and a crippling national debt are perhaps the most difficult challenges our government faces. As Coloradans know, our national security depends on our economic security — and each is threatened by skyrocketing debt and irresponsible budgeting,” Udall said. > > > “Days after the most substantive national conversation we’ve had about addressing the debt, the debate suddenly has turned to extending tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires that — alone — will cost $700 billion over the next decade. That’s $700 billion in additional debt that the United States will owe to China and our other creditors around the world — debt that our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay. It’s a ticking time-bomb that needs to be defused.” Senator Udall has apparently had a Road to Damascus experience on the national debt. After all, he voted for the $787 billion stimulus bill. He voted for the incalculably expensive health care overhaul. He gets an F from the National Taxpayers Union every year, voting only [8 percent of the time](http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/ntu-rates-congress/members/senate/mark-udall.html) in the last session for fiscal restraint. He [sponsored bills](http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/billtally/110th-congress-complete/mark-udall.html) during the 110th Congress to raise spending by $75 billion a year. Either he’s only just discovered the national debt problem in the past few weeks, or he thinks spending is not the problem — only a bill to *not raise taxes* is a “cancer” and “a ticking time-bomb.” ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).