We talk a lot about credit cards on Warren Reports. My proposal for the 110th Congress is to consider closely what’s going on with our collective national credit card.

Here’s what our most recent statement looks like. We owe close to $9 trillion. That adorable little 300 millionth American – she’s already $30,000 in the hole, hardly an auspicious beginning.

Under such circumstances, a financial counselor surely would advise an individual to prioritize repayment based on the cost of borrowing: pay back higher interest rates first, and between two items of equal cost, pay back the one most central to your well-being. Most importantly, stop incurring debt beyond that which is absolutely essential.

Apparently President Bush and the 109th Congress didn’t consult a financial advisor. Instead, their version of pay down entailed a massive tax cut, more than 45% of which redounded to the benefit of the top 5% of earners. Even if one can call a tax cut pay down (which is a stretch), distributing the money to the highest earners runs counter to the principle of paying back the most expensive debt first. Lower income Americans need more government support. That support is costly. Thus it would have made sense to distribute the proceeds of the tax cut to lower- and middle-income earners.

The Bush/109th Congress version of pay down also entailed ballooning discretionary spending more than 10% (compared to roughly 3% during the Clinton years). Note that that number does not include the cost of waging the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or the cost of federal assistance to the Gulf area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Such profligacy is unacceptable generally, and even more so in times of fiscal difficulty.

With all of that in mind, here is my proposal: undo the repeal of the estate tax, or at least stop it in its tracks. Right now the tax only applies to estates worth more than $4 million – a very small number of estates. Repealing that tax would cost the federal treasury close to $1 trillion. That is money the government can use better than the handful of people with estates worth more than $4 million.