You might not have noticed that the Republicans and Democrats in Washington recently pulled-off a remarkable feat of bipartisan cooperation.  With little fanfare, they raised the U.S. debt ceiling—the limit on how much the U.S. government can borrow on behalf of future taxpayers.

One thing that the two main parties seem to agree on is that spending money they don't have makes for good politics.  When the other guy does it, it's called "porkbarrel spending."  When you do it yourself, it's called an "earmarked spending."  It doesn’t seem to matter which party controls the Congress.

Last week, the Senate had to act quickly.  The total public debt of the United States was reaching its limit of nearly $9 trillion.  That represents approximately $30,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

But that wasn’t enough.  To provide for a continuing increase in our national debt, the Senate voted to increase the debt ceiling by another $850 billion.  That should hold the politicians over until after the 2008 election.

This isn’t the first time in recent memory that the debt ceiling had to be raised.  In January 2003, the national debt was approaching its limit of $6.4 trillion, so Congress raised the limit to $7.4 trillion.  Then in November 2004 they raised it again to $8.2 trillion.  In March 2006, they had to raise it one more time—this time to $9 trillion.

Now we’re approaching $10 trillion. This is a debt that we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren.   This is not merely irresponsible—it is immoral!

In my campaign for U.S. Senate in 2006, one of my major themes was the reckless and irresponsible spending policies of the two main parties. Had I been elected to the Senate, I certainly wouldn’t have voted for this increase.

I argued in my campaign—and I continue to believe—that the necessary change in Washington cannot come from either the Republicans or the Democrats.  If we are going to bring an end to this self-destructive binge of borrowing and spending, the voters need to look to a new political party.  That’s why I ran as a Libertarian, and why I continue to urge voters to consider the Libertarian Party as an alternative.

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