By Bill O'Reilly

Monday night we had a very lively debate with Wayne Rogers and Ben Stein about President Obama's role in the dismal economy.

Mr. Stein believes the president is a positive when it comes to economic matters, saying his vision of government stimulus is a good thing. I, of course, disagree, and I believe the facts back me up.

Mr. Rogers says that the president is a neutral for the economy, that it is Congress who is most responsible for the out-of-control spending. Again, I disagree. President Obama is the leader of his party, and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for the first two years of his administration. Clearly Mr. Obama sets the tone for how the American economy is presented to the world, and the stats are grim.

Since Barack Obama took office, the national debt has increased by $4 trillion. That's in just two and a half years. In eight years under President Bush, a big spender, the national debt increased $4.9 trillion.

So doing the math, if Mr. Obama's spending jag continues as is, he would run up almost $13 trillion in debt if he serves two terms. That's nearly three times what Bush did and far more than any president in American history.

Now, we like Wayne Rogers and Ben Stein. They are smart and honest guys, but they are missing the big picture here.

The president of the United States sets the agenda. Mr. Obama and his party tried to get out of the recession by spending tax dollars the nation did not have. Not only did unemployment get worse, but the massive debt is now a crisis. So how on earth can you not hold President Obama accountable? And, of course, Americans are, as his poll numbers continue to drop.

One big problem Mr. Obama has is selecting bad advisers, and here's a great example of what I'm talking about.

The CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, was appointed by Mr. Obama to chair the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. As Vice President Biden might say, a big f-ing deal.

Now we find out that GE is launching a joint venture with China worth $2 billion to build jet airliners which will compete against Boeing and other American companies. GE says it's "all in" on this deal and is proud of it. GE executive Lorraine Bolsinger is quoted as saying: "We don't sell bananas. We can't afford to take a decade off."

With all due respect, you know what you can do with your bananas.

GE is helping the Chinese compete against America while its boss heads up the president's council on competitiveness. Insane? I believe so.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Apparently some crazy jihadists are threatening David Letterman on the Net. Here's what the comedian has to say about it:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": You people are more to me, honestly, more than an audience tonight, really.

You're more like a human shield.

I'm so sorry I'm a little late coming out. Backstage I was talking to the guy from CBS. We were going through the CBS life insurance policy to see if I was covered for jihad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

For mocking the threats, Mr. Letterman is a patriot. And I know what he's going through; it has happened to me.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.