Has the most powerful nation in the world become so engrossed in invading and stomping some little third world country that all else has been set aside? A pipsqueak nation that had about as much chance of hurting us as a bag lady has of threatening Wall Street with her grocery cart. Are we incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time?

Have the investigative resources of the Fourth Estate and television's war channels given up on everything else except the Laci Peterson murder or an occasional car chase? Or is it that the Mayberry News services haven't heard any talk from their sources at Floyd's barber shop or Goober's garage where they normally get their news, news leaks, and propaganda? Are their staff's incompetent or simply afraid to show our economic frailty to a world population not exactly in our corner? Where's the outrage?

What about the Concord Coalition, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Cato Institute and other think tanks devoted to following and criticizing our government and economics? Where are they on this subject?

It was just last June that newspaper and airwaves were full of controversy over raising the national debt limit from $5.95 trillion to $6.4 trillion because it was "the responsible thing to do."

About the best I've heard this time comes from an Atlanta citizen who says if he ever comes home drunk after midnight with lipstick on his collar, he hopes Ari Fleischer is with him to explain things to his wife.

Not only have we added $653 billion in new debt since the beginning of fiscal 2002, but we hit the national debt ceiling of $6.4 trillion on February 20, 2003, and haven't been able to sell Treasury securities for any reason other than replacing maturing bonds, bills, and notes since that date.

Don't take my word for it, look for yourself. Here's a picture of the national debt on February 20th. You can review the entire report for verification. This table appears on the right side of page two.

The highlighted portion of this table appears exactly the same from February 20, 2003 to May 1, 2003, a total of 70 days. The U.S. Treasury has been holding at exactly $25 million under the debt limit and there's no telling when things will change.

Don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself on the Treasury's "Daily Treasury Statement" pages. Or, if you want, here's March 17th, the day the invasion of Iraq started in earnest, or how about April 15th, the day income taxes were due.

I'm writing this on Wednesday, April 30th, and the last available Daily Treasury Statement I have on hand is from Tuesday, April 29th, but I'm betting that by Thursday, May 1st, things will still be the same when I submit this article to Ether Zone for the weekend.

Of course, Congress is back in session this week and may sneak a debt ceiling raise of $900 billion or a trillion into some other popular legislation just so they don't have to vote on the subject. They did that in November of 1997 when they passed the popular Balanced Budget Act. An act that picked the year 2003 as the year the government would finally be able to stop borrowing and start living within its means. Isn't that a joke?

Here we are in the magic year, the year Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole wanted so badly when they caused government shutdowns over their refusal to raise the debt ceiling of $4.9 trillion until they had a commitment from the Clinton administration and Congress to set a date for fiscal responsibility.

Now that the date has arrived, what have we got? We've got a federal government that is borrowing us into oblivion—$653 billion since the start of fiscal 2002 is not chicken feed. It's the largest debt increase this nation has ever experienced.

So it came to a screeching halt for 70 days, do you think that was guilt about putting such enormous sums on the shoulders of future generations? Do you think that the federal government finally decided to bite the bullet, to back off on increases they've built into budgets year after year as the economy crumbled, unemployment increased, and their own revenue went down?

It's obvious that the borrowholics didn't care if city, state, and other local governments had to do without promised federal funding, have been laying people off, closing operations, and scrambling to make their own ends meet. All when the debt limit could have been easily raised long before crashing and any time thereafter.

President Bush just asked Congress for $75 billion more for the invasion of Iraq. Congress gave him $80 billion. That's the way things work in Bizarro World. Put a little in for your own projects. Raising the debt limit could easily have been part of this legislation, but it wasn't.

Of course, the borrowholics will raise the ceiling for the umpteenth time. They always do it. This time, they may even eliminate the whole idea of a ceiling and allow unlimited borrowing. After all, the limit was only instituted in 1968 as a means to force the government into balanced budgets, living within their income, and it has never worked.

Almost $2 trillion a year isn't enough for the poor dears to get by on. After all, they've got empires to build, lobbyists to satisfy, an oligarchy to support, and their own lavish retirement to consider. If you can't cough up the extra cash needed, your kids can.

The question for today is why am I the only voice in the wilderness mentioning this subject? Are the investigative reporters and talking heads of television, each with their research staffs, simply incompetent or have they been told to lay off the subject? How much trouble did you have looking up the Treasury Statements?

NEWS FLASH

Thursday morning, May 1, 2003, just as I was about to submit this article, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article titled "Tax Cut Woos Greediest Generation" in which the author claimed that Congress would pass a $7.38 trillion national debt limit by the end of April. This is the first mention of any such action by any newspaper.

On the same Thursday morning, the Washington Post published an article titled "Treasury to Increase Sales of U.S. Securities; Agency Must Finance Growing Budget Deficit" which lays out some of the debt increases you will see shortly, only some.

Greed is predictable.

References

U.S. Treasury Daily Statement
U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement (14 working days after reported month)
Bureau of Public Debt to the penny
Bureau of Public Debt: Who Holds the Debt