In that crafty maneuver, the national debt ceiling was increased to $5.95 trillion, way ahead of the need to do so, and practically no one noticed. The watchdogs were asleep at the switch.

Now, like the 1995-96 crisis, the government is again banging its head against the debt ceiling and politicians, including Dennis Hastert the Speaker of the House, are openly admitting that they are looking for another popular bill to piggyback a $750 billion debt raise. Raise the national debt limit to $6.7 trillion by attaching it to something everyone wants. Sneak it through again because they haven't got the votes to pass legislation on its own.

What happened to paying down the debt? You might ask why we've reached the current debt ceiling of $5.95 trillion when the government hasn't added any public debt in years. In fact, the "Debt Held by the Public" has gone down $410 billion since 1997. So, why is it necessary to raise the national debt limit?

The answer to that is simple. The other side of the debt, the side that used to be called Federal Debt and is now called Intragovernmental Holdings, the side where 92 percent of the debt holdings are entitlements like the Social Security, Medicare, Highways, Airports and other entitlement trust funds—has gone up almost a full trillion ($935 billion) since 1997. That's why.

These are the entitlement funds that hold nothing but debt. They are the funds that Jim DeMint (R-SC) wants to rename "accounting" funds, because they are certainly not trust funds. Thus, it is more honest to call the two Social Security accounts the "Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance Accounting Fund" and the "Federal Disability Insurance Accounting Fund." He's right, just drop the word trust, but Mr. DeMint seems to be one of the few who worry about honesty.

Changing the names wouldn't change anything else. The two Social Security funds would still combine the way they do now for a total of $1.229 trillion in debt or 20.7 percent of the national debt. Debt that can be redeemed only with taxpayer money.

And how did we get this debt? Why, we got it by giving the government extra money. Surplus payroll taxes that the Social Security Administration didn't need, and may never need, in order to make its monthly commitments to the retired and disabled. The Beltway Bandits took this money, spent it elsewhere, and then gave us debt in return. If we hadn't given them these surpluses we wouldn't be so far in debt.

Of course, they've got a fantastic fairy tale to make you believe that it's possible to both spend and save the same money, even that "the law" makes the lawmakers do it.

You see, they take your surplus payments, spend them elsewhere, and then pretend that they merely borrowed it. They place "special obligation" nonmarketable Treasury bonds in these accounts to match the money they took dollar-for-dollar.

If they used the stolen money to pay down the public debt side of the national debt everything would be even. It would be a wash and the national debt wouldn't rise. But two things happen to upset the apple cart.

First, they don't use all of the stolen money to pay down debt. Despite phony promises, a lot of it goes elsewhere and you might even say that they couldn't afford all the pork they pass out if it wasn’t for this extra entitlement money.

For instance, last year, fiscal 2001, the government swiped $160.7 billion in surplus entitlement money. And they only spent $66 billion of it to pay down the "Debt Held by the Public" side of the national debt. This payment didn't even come close to the amount stolen from Social Security surpluses alone.

Secondly, and to carry out the fairy tale about borrowing, the pirates award the so-called trust funds annual interest. This interest compounds mathematically as every grade school child should understand and as only a nitwit like Ex-senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan can define as the "magic of compound interest."

The ex-senator is one of the people who worked hard to figure out that "a twenty-minute phone call for a buck" is the same as five cents a minute. He then helped figure out how the government could live off the "seven cents a minute after that."

And what does it cost the Beltway Bandits to add this interest? Absolutely nothing. All they do is hand the debit entitlement account more bogus bonds, no cash involved. They even set up perks for themselves the same way. Just name an account something like "lonely soldier's gift account," throw some of these special bonds in it, and when it's gift giving time cash them in from the Treasury's General fund of tax money. It's also great payola and hush money. As long as the amounts set up are relatively low few will notice. (see: Trust Fund List)

Both of these factors cause the national debt to go up. Because they didn't wash out all of the $160.7 billion entitlement surplus last year, the debt rose by the amount they spent elsewhere. Then the interest caused the debt to rise even further. Because some of these entitlement accounts have grown to be enormous, like the Social Security account currently standing at $1.229 trillion, six percent interest can reach more than $70 billion in annual interest added to your tab and future taxes. Something more for your children to pay off.

Even if it all came to a screeching halt, the national debt would continue to rise because of the annual interest payments alone. Payments that cost the government absolutely nothing but the paper or electronics to print more bogus bonds.

If the government doesn't get a rise to the national debt limit, they can be in deep doo-doo and unable to steal more entitlement money—at least under the pretense of "borrowing" it.

Hence, it's very important that they find a way to raise the debt limit even though it's an election year, even though similar book-cooking is being exposed in the Enron investigation, and even though they may not have the votes to do it or a popular bill to piggyback.

They can still pull a Houdini. Bumping their heads against the ice, they can search for small air pockets that give them breathing room until after the elections. Look for and expect small temporary increases to the ceiling while they tell you that they are arguing about the issue or tell you that it has gone to committee to join the lock-boxes.

As my father would have said, the government has more dirty tricks up its sleeve than Carter has little liver pills. (Carter was the Bayer of his day)

Don't let them raise the debt ceiling. Object. Write or call your Congress critters. Yell and scream. It truly can do some good, maybe. It is an election year. A simple "I'm not voting for you if you vote to raise the debt ceiling" may do it. And get your friends involved. Not many other people will have read this far.