Go here to make your picks for the 2008 Presidential elections. A pretty cool idea if you ask me. Hat tip, Peachpundit.com

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.

This goes just beyond any practical logic. What is the point of having a debt limit if it can just be raised when the limit is reached? Once again, the Republicans have failed when it comes to fiscal discipline. There was no excuse for this measure to be taken when there is so much waste that could be cut.

Case and point:

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., appears poised to win an increase of $7 billion in new and real funding for education and health research. The $7 billion would effectively be used to break Bush’s $873 billion budget cap for 2007, which represents the most significant vestige of fiscal discipline remaining in Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg’s budget.

It’s pretty bad when the Republicans have to be lectured on fiscal discipline by Harry Reed.

“When it comes to deficits, this president owns all the records,” said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “The three largest deficits in our nation’s history have all occurred under this administration’s watch.”

God save us from the neocons.