The Hill News

House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) tried to see the bright side of the recently struck budget deal Sunday morning, but the size of the national debt wouldn't let him.

Starting with the good news, Hensarling said on CNN's "State of the Union":

On the one hand this is the single largest year-to-year cut in the federal budget -- frankly, in the history of America in absolute terms. And in inflation adjusted terms, it's the biggest since World War II. Probably for that we all deserve medals, the entire congress.

But a moment later, the optimism was gone, and he said:

Relative to the size of the problem, it is not even a rounding error. In that case we probably all deserve to be tarred and feathered. I mean $38 billion of savings. In February the deficit alone was over $200 billion. It is the shortest month! of the year.