"Well I think just like a person ... who has more income can borrow more money, the same idea applies to the nation," says Dr. Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics.

"And the fact is although the federal government is borrowing more money, when you put it in context of the size of our economy, this borrowing is actually up only slightly in the past few years -- and is actually down significantly from the 1990s," he says.

"And further when you view it in this way –- that is how much borrowing is taken out of our economy –- the U.S. government borrowing is actually less than government borrowing in countries like Germany, Japan and France," Walden concludes.