Congressional Dems to Raise Debt Limit by $1.8 Trillion

Why even bother setting a limit?

Currently, the debt limit is at $12,104 billion. The Congressional Democrats want to raise it by $1,800 billion (or if you prefer, $1.8 trillion) to $$13,904 billion, a 15% increase over the current limit.

(Source: "The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases" April 7, 2009, Congressional Research Service)

According to Politico's article, "Dems to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash" (12/9/09) (Politico, by the way, is the latest target of dissing campaign by the thin-skinned White House), of that $1.8 trillion, over 60% of that will be appropriated in the very near future, like within this year:

• $636.4 billion Pentagon appropriations bill
• $446.8 billion year-end package covering more than a dozen Cabinet departments and agencies and representing a healthy 9 percent to 10 percent increase over current spending for the same accounts.

There you go. 60.2% of the debt ceiling increase is gone with just these two bills to pay for the ever-expanding government.

Add to that the unused portion (majority) of the February stimulus bill, which so far has preserved about 600,000 jobs including 3 in Hillary Clinton-related PR firms that received nearly $6 million. The government's official accounting method is cash accounting, even though they do keep books using accrual method. Cash accounting doesn't account for money unless it is actually spent. When that bulk of stimulus money hit Main Street, as is planned right now for 2010, you can pretty much kiss the new debt ceiling goodbye much sooner than Congressional Democrats are hoping.

According to Politico, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Politico "We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills."

Who are "we"? I have a feeling that "we" in his first sentence is different from the "we" in his second sentence. The correct sentences would be: We the Congress and the Government have incurred this debt. We the taxpayers of the United States have to pay Congress's bills.

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