Well, not really.
In fact, financing America's obligations is cheaper now than it has been in at least 17 years, according to Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg News reports that the U.S. government received record demand for its bonds in 2011, “pushing longer-maturity treasuries to their best performance since 1995 in a sign that President Obama may have little difficulty” financing the budget deficit. The European debt crisis is driving investors to buy U.S. assets, allowing the government to get an “all-time high bid-to-cover ratio of 9.07 for $30 billion of four-week bills it auctioned on Dec. 20 even though they pay zero interest.” Despite the GOP’s factually-challenged fear-mongering about the deficit, the high demand for U.S. bonds are “helping to contain borrowing costs and making it cheaper as a percentage of gross domestic product to finance deficits than when the nation last had budget surpluses.”
Yes, the deficit is still very large, however it will be under $1 trillion in 2012 for the first time since 2006, and because of the Obama Administration's policies, financing the deficit is now less costly than it has been since 1995.
Yes, the financial mess in Europe makes U.S. treasuries more attractive, however it's no coincidence that the last time financing the deficit was this cheap we also had a Democratic president.
Republican presidents, particularly those who engage in reckless spending, simply do not inspire confidence. President Obama does inspire confidence. And we would be no better off than Europe if an Austere-Commander-in-Chief were currently president.
This is what true fiscal responsibility looks like. Not the phony kind you slap on a bumper sticker.