In March, they updated the national debt limit to $9 000 000 000 000. Around $5 000 000 000 higher than the current debt.

Raising the limit is a bad (but necessary) political move. That's why the Democrats forced the Republicans who've been increasing spending and cutting taxes to also do the limit increase.

But think about what they set it to. Not only will the limit need raising again almost certainly, but unless things improve, the limit will have to be raised again while Bush is still president. Sounds like bad planning.

Maybe they're confident the next president will be Republican and they'd rather set this on a Republican who can't server again rather than an incoming Republican. Or maybe they wanted to still control the official dialog when this happens. Maybe they think they'll lose the Congress and want to force Democrats to make this vote shortly before the presidential election.

Maybe they really believe things are looking up. The debt is only increasing by around $1 740 000 000 per day, right?