The last we heard from Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), he impressed voters nationwide by assuring us that he didn’t care about the Constitution when creating law in Congress. Now he wants to let us know that the national debt is nothing but a “myth.”  In what will almost certainly become a sound bite in House races across the nation, Hare not only disputes the existence of debt and deficits, he insists that Democrats have to keep spending money we don’t have … for the children:

And we will see a terrible price that we will pay years down the road for letting our children down when they need us the absolute most.  I’m not going to be part of that, so every minute that I have here is going to be spent debunking the myth that this country’s in debt and we just can’t spend.

Well, that’s certainly a new approach.  Or perhaps not; remember in 2005 when Democrats insisted that Social Security didn’t need reform? Do not trouble us with your silly mathematics, Hare and the Democrats are telling voters.  That massive red ink that we’re creating isn’t debt at all — it’s, er … um … performance art!  Yeah, that’s it!

Meanwhile, the people who will have to pay for the massive amounts of red ink will be those same children that Hare claims he’s protecting, or to me even more accurate, the children, their children, and their children’s children.  National debt and deficits are no myth, but what is clearly mythical is the legend of the fiscally responsible Democrat.

Update: People are wondering whether Hare will return in 2011.  IL-17 is a D+3 district, so it should be competitive.  Bobby Schilling is running against him in this western Illinois district.  A recent GOP poll put Schilling up slightly (a virtual tie), but Jim Geraghty notes today that Schilling has been on a fundraising tear, too.  He also has data on a Public Opinion Polls survey that shows Hare in deep, deep trouble.