A mere month and a half after realizing that the federal bank account was going to start sending out rubber checks, the Senate has stepped in and narrowly (52-48) passed a bill raising the borrowing limit (every man, woman and child alive now owes a mere $30,000 apiece). From the Associated Press:
The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.
The vote came a day after Treasury Secretary John Snow warned lawmakers that action was “critical to provide certainty to financial markets that the integrity of the obligations of the United States will not be compromised.”
The debt limit increase is an unhappy necessity _ the alternative would be a disastrous first-ever default on U.S. obligations _ that greatly overshadowed a mostly symbolic, weeklong debate on the GOP’s budget resolution.
Not surprisingly, the Senate was mostly empty during debate, as Democrats were only interested in gleefully bashing the fiscal irresponsibility (“When it comes to deficits, this president owns all the records,” Harry Reid) without offering a fiscally conservative alternative of their own making. And Republicans simply just don’t give a crap.
But anyways, $30,000… better take out a loan.
