Exactly five days ago, on Saturday, September 29, 2007 Congress approved an $850 billion increase to the national debt. Did you hear anything about that?

This means that the public and the democrats had little, if any, awareness of its happening which may account for the weekend vote. Either that or this is another proof that there’s not much difference between republicans and democrats. Or the democrats simply missed the opportunity to “hold up” the republicans and get at least a commitment to bring our troops home by a certain time.

 

In December of 1995 and January of 1996, for almost two full months, the republicans brought the government to a screeching halt. Newt Gingrich claimed he had a mandate from the people in his pocket, or as he put it “a contract with America.” He said, the people wanted a balanced budget and the republicans were not going to vote for an increase to the national debt until they got it. In the end, they settled for an agreement to work it out with some timing concessions.

Don’t you wish the democrats were as loyal to the people that elected them to a majority in both the Senate and the House?

Once Nancy Pelosi had the “contract with America” in her pocket, why didn’t she use it? The nation had been just below the debt ceiling for months. Are the democrats so sweet and forgiving they wouldn’t use the same tactics against republicans. Are they just the whipping posts intimidated by republicans? Did they forget what the republicans did to them in 1995 when the republicans became the majority? Were they afraid the republicans would accuse them of short changing our troops on the front? Can we afford to continue this invasion/occupation of a nation where we should never have been in the first place?

Would you believe it? There are still people who think the democrats are going to deny the Bush administration the money to carry on with murder and mayhem. They had their chance and they muffed it. Even if they could sabotage the vote in the Senate and House, Bush would still have a major resource for money – borrowing. That’s what the national debt is all about, and now he has $850 billion more to run up.

However, borrowing depends heavily on other nations willing to loan us money. What’s more, it takes the people to pay the money back. With the dollar falling in value; the loss of our industrial base; an annual deficit of more than $800 billion; the people carrying too much credit card debt; everyone denying inflation; home values just beginning to decline; and leaders trying to bluff their way into financial responsibility – would you invest in a declining nation?

If you follow the Treasury sales, you can’t help but notice they’re not doing good. Amounts accepted are about one-third of what the Treasury tries to sell. Henry Paulson might temporarily help by increasing interest rates, but that means higher interest for everyone.

Some of the more despondent economists recommend getting rid of your mortgage; investing in another country with a strong economy and fiscal responsibility; and working in yet another country.