DEAR JUDD GREGG: SHUT THE HELL UP IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

Drudge is pointing us to this story from The Hill:

Gregg: U.S. couldn't even join E.U. due to debt levels

The United States wouldn't even be eligible to enter the European Union if it wanted to because of its debt levels, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claimed Thursday.

"We won't even be able to get into the EU if we wanted to," Gregg said this morning on MSNBC, "because our government is so large and so huge."

The European Union's Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) adopted in 1997 requires a budget deficit to be less than three percent...

Here's the reality (emphasis mine):

European Union rules require governments to keep their deficits below 3% of gross domestic product, though the rules allow some flexibility in times of economic stress.

...Ireland ... is likely to see its budget deficit balloon to 11% of GDP in 2009 and 13% in 2010....

And Ireland isn't being kicked out of the EU, though it is being asked to get its deficit down to 3% ... by 2013. Not immediately. Because, you know, we're in a very severe global freaking recession.

Nor are any of these countries being booted:

The commission forecasts budget shortfalls this year of ... 6.2 percent in Spain, 5.4 percent in France and 4.6 percent in Portugal...

Judd, I know you're quitting the Senate soon and you're probably looking to hoover up some Murdoch money or another form of wingnut welfare when you retire. And yes, I'm sure Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh will lavishly praise your inevitable memoir, My Few Days Waiting to Work in the Scary, Spendthrift, Anti-American, Fascist Obama White House. But even if all that works out for you, you're still full of it.

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Oh, and by the way, the U.S. budget deficit was more than 3% of GDP in 2003, 2004, and 2008. Who was president in those years, Judd?