Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit

[ProSense]

Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit

By ANDREW TAYLOR
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 16, 2006; 11:51 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.

The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.

The measure allows the government to pay for the war in Iraq and finance Medicare and other big federal programs without raising taxes. It passed hours before the House was expected to approve another $91 billion to fund the war in Iraq and provide more aid to hurricane victims.

The partisan vote also came as the Senate continued debate on a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year that would produce a $359 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031600155.html?nav=rss_politics

[CornField]

1. 4th such move _ increasing the debt limit by a total of $3 trillion

Since Bush took office 5 years ago.


How much is a trillion?
With all the zeros, a trillion dollars looks like:
$1,000,000,000,000

That's enough for 10,000 Powerball jackpots of $100 million each.

It would pay for the roughly $5 billion state general-fund budget for Iowa for the next 200 years.

It makes something like the proposed high-speed rail network to serve the Midwest, costing an estimated $3.5 billion, seem like a trifle. A trillion dollars would build 285 such networks.