Apparently, there is some thought on the part of a certain group in Washington that federal spending is a bit out of hand. Hmm. You don’t suppose we have a problem here, do you?

Taking Washington absurdity to new heights, President Obama’s specially appointed “debt commission” has come back with a report stating – are you ready for this? – we’re incurring too much debt.

No. You don’t think. Really?

But in the absurd world of Governmentonia, no elected official (well, OK, Paul Ryan) can actually say what is as plain as the nose on your face to any even remotely engaged human being. So they task a cadre of retired government types to diligently study the numbers and come back with a report.

The Associated Press, of course, reports the findings as if they are news:

The nation’s total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion – about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.

“This debt is like a cancer,” Bowles said in a sober presentation nonetheless lightened by humorous asides between him and Simpson. “It is truly going to destroy the country from within.”

Just so you know, $14 trillion is just about the nation’s entire gross domestic product. Every penny that can be raised by tax revenue is immediately swallowed up by three entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Every penny. We borrow to fund everything else – from mohair subsidies and bridges to nowhere to the entire Defense Department Budget and Air Force One.

But I don’t know this because this dumbass “debt commission” said so. I know this because I have – how shall I put this? – looked at the budget.

(Actually, there is no budget, because congressional Democrats refuse to pass one this year out of abject fear that the political consequences of their insane spending will only intensify if they actually make their recklessness legal and official.)

I’ve looked at the most recent budget we have, which is now being kept alive in the form of continuing resolutions and “emergency” expenditures. And every member of Congress has looked at it too. Every member of Congress knows exactly what they are doing. President Obama knows exactly what he is doing, but he does it anyway because Democrats think governing consists of: 1) expanding the unionized federal work force to the greatest extent possible, preferably to 100 percent of the population; 2) finding creative new ways to transfer wealth from enterprising producers to dependent lemmings; and 3) suing everyone who has any wealth left.

We did all this and you’re still stinking rich? 1-800-CALL-SAM!

The debt commission is little more than political cover for the imperative to raise taxes, because that is what Obama really wants to do. He doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the fact that the federal government is spending $3.6 trillion this year. He thinks there’s something wrong with the fact that Uncle Sam is taking in “only” $1.7 trillion and not soaking the entire $3.6 trillion from the U.S. taxpayer. Hey! There’s $14 trillion out there. Hand it over, you deadbeats! Your country needs it.

Since this column has chronicled many times Obama’s complete lack of understanding of economics, you will not be surprised to learn that he sees no reason such a usurpation should hinder the private sector’s ability to create wealth and opportunity. Just because the federal government confiscates an additional 15 percent of all the nation’s wealth doesn’t mean it should be any harder to employ Joe the Lunch Bucket Toter.

These people! These robber barons, derivatives traders, speculators, oil company executives, bond traders . . . OK, the president doesn’t exactly know what any of them do, but they have lots of money. Trust him.

But you already knew how blind to reality Washington was with respect to economics. Apparently it’s just as clueless about the politics of the matter. Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton chief of staff and now co-chair of the commission, offers the following blather concerning his group’s earth-shattering finding: “What we do is not so hard to figure out; it’s the political consequences of doing it that makes it really tough.”

Meanwhile, candidates across the nation are winning primaries as they promise to take a hatchet to federal spending, prompting sage, establishment media like the AP to speculate that these crazy extremists must be winning because their incumbent opponents criticized Glenn Beck.

There’s an entire wave sweeping this nation, demanding that Washington politicians get federal spending under control or face the political death penalty, and yet the Inside the Beltway crowd still panics over what will happen if they stop sending home federal money for bike trails and apple blight research.

By the way, for those luminaries who would throw themselves off tall buildings if they ever lost their seats, what do you suppose would be the political consequences of bankrupting the nation to the point of Soviet-style collapse?

Because, if that ever happened, I think there’s a chance they might even lose their access to the House gym.

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