US Senate Raises Debt Limit
The U.S. Senate today approved a bill to raise the national debt limit by 850 billion U.S. dollars to 9.815 trillion dollars.
The debt limit increase bill was passed in the Senate by a 53-42 vote, and has been sent to President George W. Bush who is expected to sign it by Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year starts and the government hits its current borrowing ceiling of 8.965 trillion dollars.
The House approved an increase in the national debt limit in May this year.
Earlier this month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged quick actions from the Democrats-controlled Congress to raise the national debt limit, saying the U.S. government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.
The national debt is the total accumulation of annual budget deficits, which must be financed with borrowed money.
The limit of the national debt has been raised several times since President Bush took office in 2001. The last time was in March 2006 when Congress agreed to raise the debt ceiling by 781 billion dollars.
The Ever-Rising Debt (Ceiling)
What would we do without the debt ceiling? Without it, elected officials would spend money like drunken sailors. With it, elected officials do spend money like drunken sailors who, once every year or so, have to get a permission slip.
According to Wikipedia:
At any given time (at least in recent decades), there is a debt ceiling in effect. Whereas Congress once approved legislation for every debt issuance, the growth of government fiscal operations in the twentieth century made this impractical … If the outstanding debt grows to this ceiling level, the Treasury may not issue any additional debt beyond replacing maturing amounts. In some past episodes, in combination with appropriation impasses, this led to many agencies of the government being shut down or only providing extremely limited service. However, the ceiling is routinely raised by passage of new laws by the United States Congress every year or so.
According to TreasuryDirect the situation is as follows:
As At 10/11/2007
- Debt Held by the Public: 5,038 trillion
- Intragovernmental Holdings: 4,004 trillion
- Total Public Debt Outstanding: 9,042 trillion
US$9 TRILLION!
How Much is $9 Trillion?
- 9 trillion miles is the distance light can travel in 1.5 years. Light travels at 186,000 miles per SECOND.
- 9 trillion seconds ago would take us to 2772BC, the period of Egypt’s Second Dynasty
- 9 trillion dollars is $1,370 for every single person alive on earth
- 9 trillion inches is 142,723,350 miles - the distance form the earth to the sun is only 92 million miles
- 9 trillion centimeters is 90 million kilometers - the equivalent of travelling round the world at the equator 2,260 times!
The sad fact is that, these numbers are so big that nobody really comprehends what they are or what they mean except for lonely Comptroller General David M. Walker who has made it his mission in life to do something about the growing debt and the nation’s mounting financial obligations - unfortunately, no one seems to care.The Associated Press reports that the 53-42 vote comes just before the October 1st deadline to authorize continued spending.
Congress has never failed to raise the debt ceiling and prevent default on U.S. obligations, but the vote nonetheless illustrates the fiscal failings of Bush and Congress since the U.S. recorded four straight years of surpluses ending in 2001, Bush’s first year….
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., noted that the bill would be the fifth debt limit increase - totaling $3.865 trillion - since Bush took office.
Bush’s 2001 budget presentation promised tax cuts, spending increases and $2 trillion in debt buyback made possible by huge budget surplus forecasts - estimates that proved very, very wrong.
“Instead of paying down the debt, the debt has exploded on his watch,” Conrad said.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praised the Senate for protecting “the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Well, as long we are protecting “the full faith and credit of the United States”…
With thanks to Tim
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