“Deficits don’t matter.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney made that observation while he was in office, and his administration was racking up annual deficits of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Cheney, of course, was as wrong about deficits as he was about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The piling on of federal debt, year after year, takes an increasing toll.

That’s more true today than ever, with Washington trying to jump start the economy out of its steep recession.

The success of this spending binge — which has been the handiwork of the Obama administration, although its origins can be traced to the dying days of the Bush administration — is mixed. For one thing, it’s impossible to say with any certainty how bad things would have gotten if no steps had been taken to stimulate the economy or bail out key industries.

Some analysts argue that the country could have suffered another massive economic depression, but there’s no way to prove that.

Conversely, other economists worry that Washington’s efforts may have had a short-term impact, but pose serious risks for the future. Not only have the bailouts and related actions skewed the free market system, ballooning federal deficits are running at levels far beyond anything ever seen before.

For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the annual deficit was $1.42 trillion — three times higher than the previous year’s record amount. And the Obama administration anticipates deficits averaging close to $1 trillion per year for the next decade.

Officially, the administration has pledged to slash the deficit in half by the end of its term. But the Bush White House made the same promise to absolutely no avail.

And cutting the annual deficit by 50 percent isn’t enough. Washington’s willingness to spend money it does not have becomes increasingly dangerous as it grows accustomed to the practice. Just as an individual or business cannot operate on debt indefinitely, neither can the federal government.

There are two main dangers from uncontrolled deficit spending. One is that it will drive up interest rates as Washington competes with the private sector for limited funds. The second is that entities that acquire Washington’s debt may lose confidence in the government’s ability to meet its payments or maintain the value of the dollar.

In short, if Washington becomes a bad credit risk, the house of cards it has been crafting will collapse. Should that occur, the current recession will look quaint in comparison.

We believe Washington needed to act aggressively with the current recession. But with a measure of stability, the private sector must now return to the forefront. Part of that involves scaling back government spending with a goal of a balanced budget in mind.

It won’t happen overnight, but it must become a priority.