We’ve got news for ya’ll: before the end of this year the Senate will increase the national debt to over 13 TRILLION bucks.  That’s a lot of cash.  But the Dems have a little trick up their sleeves to limit finger pointing from the other side.  They’re considering piggie-backing the bill (debt limit) onto a “must pass” bill to ensure that most, if not all, Republicans vote for it as well.  What’s a “must pass” bill?  How about a Defense Spending bill?  Do you know how bad it would look if any Senator voted against money for our National Defense/military in the midst of two of the nastiest conflicts in our history?  Not good.  Especially not good if you’re the party who pride themselves on keeping our military the best equipped on Earth.  A dirty way to play politics perhaps, blackmail the other party vote for what you want.  Not that Democrats want more debt, at least I’d hope they don’t.  Nobody does.  The Dems would rather get this done sooner rather than later; they don’t want to come back to this issue politically during a volatile 2010 midterm election season.  Granted, this isn’t all on the D’s.  When Bush left office the debt was steadily climbing around $10 trillion.  Also, when Clinton took office he inherited a fairly large debt; in his first 3 (ish) years, he spent quite a bit of money to fix a slouching economy increasing the debt each year.  By the time the campaign came for a second term, the debt started to fall and he lead the United States into its most prosperous period since the 1950′s.  Either way, $13 trillion is a lot damn money.  And politics is one filthy business.

-D