Flying without a parachute...
Likely Vote to Up National Debt Looms
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 15, 9:52 PM ET
Senate Republicans cast symbolic campaign-season votes Wednesday to increase spending for border and port security — one day before a likely vote to increase the national debt by an additional $781 billion, to $9 trillion.
The uncomfortable vote to increase the debt is the fourth since President Bush took office, and it comes as Republicans struggle to pass a budget plan for next year. GOP leaders have already dropped Bush's plans for tax cuts and curbs to Medicare, but now his cap on appropriated spending is in danger as well.
After the expected vote Thursday, Democrats and moderate Republicans may succeed in adding $7 billion in spending for education and health care research to a GOP-driven plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
If successful, that would break through Bush's requested cap on the amount of money available for spending bills.
The debt limit increase is an unhappy necessity; the alternative is a first-ever default on U.S. financial obligations. The Senate devoted just two hours to the topic Wednesday evening. Action on the debt limit is overshadowing the weeklong debate on the GOP's budget blueprint.
Also, it comes as Republicans try to convince their supporters that they are getting serious about restraining spending.
Yet, in a series of budget votes this week, Republicans approved symbolic increases for politically sensitive programs such as education, port security and veterans' benefits while distancing themselves from Bush's proposal in an election year.
The debt limit bill is the fourth such measure required since Bush took office five years ago. If approved, the latest version would mean that the debt had grown over that span from about $6 trillion to $9 trillion — about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
"We are plunging deeper and deeper into debt and it is increasingly financed by foreigners," said Sen. Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota, top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. "We keep on spending, we keep on cutting taxes, we keep on funning up the debt."
[more]
news.yahoo.com |
