Just in case you weren’t aware:
Without comment or ceremony, President Bush yesterday signed a bill allowing a record $984 billion increase in the amount the federal government can borrow, to a record $7.4 trillion. The increased federal borrowing will enable the government to pay for the $350 billion economic stimulus package that the GOP-led Congress passed last week at Bush’s behest.
Bush will hold a signing ceremony at the White House today to celebrate the passage of that legislation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The package includes $330 billion in tax cuts and $20 billion in aid for states.
Passage of the bill raising the debt ceiling came on Friday, only hours after the tax cut bill was approved. Democrats had sought to spotlight the IOUs that have resumed piling up under Bush. But Republicans maneuvered to get the debt-ceiling measure passed quickly, and with little fanfare. [Washington Post]
So, in his inimitable style, Bush has secretively signed legislation to allow us to be in record debt; then he’ll follow it with a media hoopla to sign the bill that puts us into record debt. This debt legislation points out a very important fact: we don’t have the money for this tax cut, we’re going to borrow it.
Even this tiny article was buried in the “Washington in Brief” column.
Yes, I felt like even NPR had done much the same thing this morning. When they reported on “Morning Edition” today about the ceremony surrounding today’s signing of the tax bill, they noted as a very brief aside–maybe 5 seconds of audio–that the bill raising the debt ceiling had been quietly signed yesterday, and added no analysis to the mere reporting of the fact.