From the November 2005 Idaho Observer:

U.S. shoots past $8 trillion debt ceiling

Public spending limited only by imagination of politicians, patience of shadow creditors

WASHINGTON, D.C.-As of October 18, 2005, the national debt exceeded the $8 trillion mark.

The trend upward of public indebtedness has been climbing steadily since we reached our first $trillion at the beginning of the Reagan era in 1981. Where it took nearly 200 years to top the $trillion mark, it has only taken 24 more years to climb an additional $7 trillion-that's an increase of $1 trillion every 3.4 years.

And the pace is quickening. According to Ed Hall of the U.S. Debt Clock, the U.S. hit $7 trillion on December 3, 2003. We sunk a trillion deeper in less than two years.

Since September 30, 2005, the average daily increase in the national debt has been $3.48 billion.

To put the number "trillion" into perspective, it would take about 31,710 years to count to a trillion one second at a time.

"No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years. The financial mismanagement of our country by the Bush administration should be of concern to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion," said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.).

Public indebtedness

is not an accident

Since before the birth of Christ, politicians and their friends have been raping the land of its natural resources, looting the public treasury and charging interest on the public and private use of worthless metal and paper mediums of exchange.

"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced and; the arrogance of public officials should be controlled," said Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman orator, lawyer, politician and philosopher nearly a century before the Crucifixion.

Though states have forever been abusing the public trust, state schools do not teach this critical component of history. Americans, for instance, are so ignorant of basic economics and the tendency of governments to tax and spend their people into destitution that they have allowed their leaders to accrue $8 trillion of indebtedness in their name.

According to the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, from 1776-2000, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a total $1.1 trillion from banks and foreign governments; the Bush administration alone has borrowed $1.5 trillion since 2001.