U.S. Federal Debt Limit Raised $781 billion

The U.S. Senate decided as expected to raise the legal limit on the gross federal debt by $781 billion, from $8,184 billion to $8,965 billion. This was the fourth such increase during the Bush presidency, and at the rate the debt is increasing now, another such increase will be needed already next year.

Meanwhile, as we can see in the above linked story, notoriusly statist Republican Senators like Arlen Specter have been working to increase spending and eliminate even the few timid and insufficient spending cuts proposed by President Bush. One can wonder why they even bother to have a formal debt limit when they are going to raise it every year when it is reached and when they are working non-stop to increase it through more and more spending.