I'll see your bet and raise you $781 billion...

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill that will allow the government to borrow another $781 billion… it should be known that this would raise the national debt limit to nearly $9 trillion.

You read that right… not a ‘m’, not a ‘b’, but a ‘tr’… as in TRILLION…

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) confessed "It's hard to understand what a trillion is. I don't know what it is."

Brilliant... absolutely brilliant...

Why was the bill approved? Well, the Bush Administration would tell you it was needed in order to forestall a possible government default on their debt later this month.

(Intelligence would tell you it was to cover the expenses for the Iraq war and all the other Bush-blunders this country has had to put up with…though I am sure the possibility of defaulting on the debt is a valid reason… but I also think we all know why we’re even in the position to default on our debts in the first place...)

The voting was, not surprisingly, broken down in partisan lines with 52 voting for and 48 voting against. Every single Democrat (Every. Single. One.) voted against imposing this financial burden on working Americans with three Republicans (you saw that right... three Republicans) voting with them; Conrad Burns (R-MT), John Ensign (R-NV), and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

The measure (btw, this is the fourth time the cap has been raised since 2002) now goes to Commander Cuckoo Bananas for his signature, which I assume he can do on his own…

If voters want change, if they want adults controlling the nation's wallet, then the only party that can restore fiscal sanity is the Democratic Party.

While Democrats are united (at least there's one thing we can be united in) in reigning in the out-of-control and reckless spending of this President, the GOP couldn't care less about the country's financial security as the "rubber-stamp Republicans" have increased the government's debt four times since President Bush took office , adding an additional $2.23 trillion cushion.

This comes at the same time as the U.S. military (in association with the Iraq “military”, such as it is) opens up an air campaign (named: Operation Swarmer) against insurgent strongholds in Northern Iraq and at the same time that Dubya restates the doctrine of preemptive war that allows war against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons (cuz it worked SO well in Iraq…)

The downward spiraling of our beloved country continues…