PolitiFactThere's a few variations of this "fact" floating around. Some use the spending, some use accumulated debt; some focus on the last 200 years, while other focus on the first 100 congresses.
Most versions are false. The one that is actually true is that 111th congress accumulated more debt than the first 100 combined.
McCarthy spokeswoman Erica Elliott forwarded us a Dec. 27, 2010, article from the conservative website CSNNews.com that looked at this question. The 111th Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2009, and exited on Dec. 22, 2010, a period in which the gross federal debt increased from $10.6 trillion to $13.9 trillion, a rise of $3.2 trillion. (There's an alternate measure of debt -- public debt -- that doesn't count the money that one part of the government lends to another part of the government, but the difference in the two figures is modest, so for simplicity, we'll stick with gross federal debt here.)
Meanwhile, CNSNews tracked down a document showing that the gross federal debt reached $3.22 trillion in September 1990, a date that came during the 101st Congress. Thus the focus on the first 100 Congresses.
The bottom line: If McCarthy had referred to debt rather than spending, he would have been correct. But he didn't, which is why the statement published in the Californian is incorrect.
Of course, the comparison is still misleading as it completely ignores inflation, economic growth, and population growth.