JON GABRIEL: Congress ignored warnings about its pandemic spending. Now the bill is coming due.

Rep. Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called the estimated fraud “the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history.”

I don’t know if it’s the “greatest” — there’s $33 trillion worth of overspending with both parties’ fingerprints all over it.

Back in 1988, the Democratic Party Platform said Republicans had “mortgaged our children’s future by tripling our national debt.” At that time, it was a quaint $2.7 trillion.

In 1996, the Republican Party Platform proclaimed, “We have a moral responsibility not to leave our children a legacy of monstrous debt.” The total then was $5 trillion.

I guess our “children’s future” and our “moral responsibility” doesn’t matter much these days.

Occasionally, a brave senator or representative will point out the tsunami of red ink flowing from the Potomac. Kudos to Sen. Crapo and Rep. Smith for highlighting this latest scandal.

But most politicians have quietly agreed to increase the debt, year in and year out, until the entire artifice collapses from its own weight.

If you thought 2008’s housing bubble was bad, wait until the debt bubble bursts.

Exit quote: “A trillion here, a trillion there can really add up.”