Treasury Secretary John W. Snow informed Congress that the government has now taken "all prudent and legal actions" to avoid bumping up against the debt ceiling. The limit will need to be raised from its current level: $8,184,000,000,000.
If you aren't used to deciphering that parade of zeros, let us translate for you: $8.184 Trillion isn't enough. The administration is asking for an additional $781 billion.
President Bush has managed to rack up more new debt during his five years in office than the entire debt amassed by the United States through 1988.
And there is more to come: The president's budget envisions the debt rising to $11.5 Trillion by 2011.
"Future generations shouldn't be forced to pay back money that we have borrowed," Mr. Bush said in March 2001. "We owe this kind of responsibility to our children and grandchildren." Where is that responsibility now?
[From a Washington Post editorial]
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