Raise Debt Limit (Liberal media tax and spend advocates think Bush is fiscally irresponsible.)

The Kansas City Star - Opinion Editorial ^ | June 25, 2002 | Editorial staff

[RAT Patrol]

Posted on Tue, Jun. 25, 2002

Raise debt limit

Republicans who dominate the U.S. House are suffering acute embarrassment over the rising debt. They should be. But they should ignore their pride and, along with Democrats, promptly approve a modest increase in the debt limit.

Congress has no choice but to raise the federal debt limit. The government has run out of money, and it has reached the limit on borrowing that lawmakers previously established.

Congressional delays in raising the limit have squandered large amounts of money by forcing the government into expensive accounting shenanigans.

The Senate approved a $450 billion increase on the limit earlier this month. It was higher than necessary, but an improvement over the administration's requested $750 billion increase. An increase that large would take pressure off Congress and the White House to curb excessive spending.

President Bush and lawmakers deserve blame for the fiscal irresponsibility that is putting the country deeper into the red. Over the past year, they have frittered away hundreds of billions of dollars on oversized spending programs and tax cuts the country could not afford.

Many advocates of fiscal responsibility warned about the inevitable results. Now the day of reckoning has arrived. House members want to pretend they had nothing to do with it.

"They don't really have a choice," Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Sunday. "They've already voted the money that's being spent that is pushing us up against the debt ceiling."

That's true. But O'Neill's boss -- the president -- encouraged and approved much of this spending. Even now, Bush continues to talk about more tax cuts while ignoring the fact that they would be financed through more government borrowing. And he continues to push for more federal spending in many areas.

As the government moves deeper into the red, this is the time for the president to pay more attention to the federal government's bottom line. It is getting worse by the hour.

© 2001 kansascitystar and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansascity.com

[FITZ]

Easy, just print more money or propose a bill outlawing zeroes.

Yes. Most money isn't even printed anymore ---it just exists in electronic data bases but has very little real substance behind it. We all think we've got money but few of us can take it out of the stock market and it crashes and the government can simply refuse to give us what we thought was our Social Security money --or tax it all back. Money today is just whatever the government decides.