When $290 Billion Only Buys 6 Weeks

As one of its very last acts of the year, the Senate voted to raise the ceiling on how much money the Treasury can borrow by $290 billion to $12.4 trillion.

The increase sounds like a lot but actually, it's not. The increased borrowing authority will only last until mid-February and, in fact, the Senate is scheduled to vote on another increase Jan. 20. Had the Senate not acted, Treasury would have hit the limit on New Year's Eve.

The regular increase in the debt is always an occasion for political fun and games but failure to increase the limit could put the U.S. government in technical default on its many financial obligations. No one quite knows that would happen in technical default and no responsible lawmaker wants to find out.

The Democrats had planned on an increase of $2 trillion and may yet try again.

That amount would have postponed the next increase in the limit until after the November congressional elections but the Republicans quite naturally balked. Increasing the debt limit is always an opportunity to dramatize the other party's profligacy.

The Senate vote was 60 to 39, and, with two exceptions, it broke exactly along party lines with the Republicans voting no. While the Republicans derided the bill, as the Associated Press pointed out, "they routinely supplied votes for eight previous increases totaling $5.4 trillion under President George W. Bush."

Various lawmakers are vowing to use future votes on raising the debt ceiling to enact deficit-fighting measures. Following a year in which the government went a scary $1.4 trillion into the red to halt a financial meltdown that would be an excellent idea.

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