From the June 2003 Idaho Observer:

Bush saddles nation with additional $trillion debt in trade for $330 billion in tax relief

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Late last May the Associated Press reported that President Bush, “without comment or ceremony....signed a bill allowing a record $984 billion increase in the amount the federal government can borrow, to a record $7.4 trillion.”

The previous debt ceiling of $6.4 trillion had been breached earlier this year. Democrats reportedly hoped to use the debt-ceiling increase to spotlight the stack of unpaid bills that have been piling up since Bush took office.

Democratic party efforts to make political hay out of the Bush administration's fiscal irresponsibility was unsuccessful. The Republican-dominated Senate cleverly slipped another debt ceiling bill onto the floor after passing their $350 billion “economic stimulus” package. Passed 53-44 the Friday before the week-long Memorial Day recess, Americans were apparently too delighted with the promise of tax rebate checks in July to realize the price of $330 billion in tax cuts is an additional $trillion in national indebtedness.

The higher debt ceiling, which simply increases again the amount of money the federal government authorizes itself to borrow from the Federal Reserve, only buys the government more time before being forced to default on its loans.

This year's federal deficit is expected to exceed $300 billion, a new record. According to the AP, President Bush stated, “the bill....will enable the government to continue borrowing money until sometime next year.”

“Failure to extend the borrowing limit could have led to a first-ever federal default - something neither party wants to explain,” wrote the AP.