What Passes For A Taxpayer “Win” In Washington

Despite an aggressive push by President Barack Obama and Congressional democrats, efforts to ram through a massive new debt hike before the Christmas holidays will have to wait till next year.

Instead, the U.S. Congress will have to settle for a short-term $200 billion increase in the federal debt limit – leaving a looming vote on an unprecedented $1.7 trillion increase for 2010 (an election year).

The federal debt limit is the amount that the U.S. government can legally borrow. Congress has raised its debt ceiling 76 times since 1960, including five times since March of 2006.

In fact, we’ve more than doubled the current debt ceiling over the last seven years – including an $800 billion increase just 10 months ago, which was another little-known provision included in the so-called “stimulus” bill.

Why does this matter?

Well, the U.S. debt limit – currently set at $12.1 trillion – is about to be overtaken by the U.S. debt.

Originally, the plan was to pass a $1.5 trillion increase in December (which would have also been unprecedented), in the hopes that this $13.6 trillion “ceiling” would have lasted through the November 2010 elections.

Calculations quickly proved that assumption wrong, however, prompting Democratic leaders to push for a whopping $1.9 trillion increase – which would have taken the debt limit to $14 trillion.

That larger increase is still likely to happen (after all, they’ve spent the money already), but at least now lawmakers will have to pass the increase closer to their upcoming elections.

Sadly, “delaying the inevitable” is about the only thing that passes for a taxpayer “win” these days in Washington …