Raise the debt ceiling! But, just a little...

Well, it looks like Congress will raise the "debt ceiling" by just $200 billion instead of the much larger $1.9 trillion, as previously believed, due to some moderate Democrats who are insisting on the development of some sort of a plan to eventually pay down some of the debt.

That's a start. Like an alcoholic, the first step toward recovery is to admit you have a problem. Unfortunately, far too few elected officials think there's a problem.

A report at CNN/Money earlier today came with the graphic below that really doesn't look all that bad on the scale provided with the new, smaller increase sounding almost benign.

Last week, there was talk on Capitol Hill of raising the legal limit on how much debt the U.S. Treasury could have on the books by as much as $1.9 trillion. This week, the tune has changed considerably.
The new plan under consideration: increase the debt ceiling just enough to satisfy Treasury's borrowing needs for two months -- likely by "a couple hundred billion dollars," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday.

This could be a dangerous precedent. Lawmaker may realize that raising the debt ceiling by just one or two hundred billion dollars ten times a year is a lot easier than raising it one or two trillion dollars just once a year.