We agree with U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, that the federal government’s excessive spending and the Biden administration’s unwillingness to embrace energy production contribute to the inflation hurting families’ budgets.

“There has been an unbelievable amount of spending,” Meuser recently told the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, according to an article in Wednesday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, adding the “big mistake was the administration’s spending excessively during a nationwide recovery from the pandemic in 2020.”

While the Biden administration has thankfully failed to prevent domestic oil production from meeting some of the needs of families and businesses, there clearly is more that can be done to enable development — particularly in regards to our lack of capacity to refine oil, but also in streamlining the process so more of our domestic supplies of oil and natural gas can be tapped.

We continue to believe that oil and natural gas can be safely and responsibly developed, in ways that minimize the environmental impact. We also continue to believe that renewable sources of energy — hydroelectric, wind and solar — can be developed in tandem with the sources of energy that have traditionally powered our society and allowed our communities to flourish.

But we caution voters, as we have in the past, that renewable energy at this time can only augment our needs — our homes and businesses simply require too much power and the technology for affordable battery capacity is still in too early of stages for us to give up on oil and natural gas, regardless of what environmental alarmists claim.

Beyond the issue of inflation, the government’s spending spree under the presidencies of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump contributes to our growing national debt.

As we’ve editorialized before and will likely continue to editorialize, our national debt of $35.27 trillion is simply unsustainable. Regardless of how tired any American may well be of hearing about it, it will require serious sacrifices — and as deficits continue to contribute more to that debt, the sacrifices to be borne by future generations only get steeper. If addressing this imbalance continues, the day will come when both our tax burdens must be higher and spending on federal programs, regardless of their popularity or necessity, must be severely cut.

If any issue truly deserves the alarmism to which “doom and gloom” climate-change activists dedicate their rhetoric, it is our nation’s unsustainable spending.