During the last four years, President Bush and his allies in Congress have charged a multi-trillion dollar spending spree of tax cuts for the wealthy and preemptive war to the national credit card, saddling future generations with the crippling debt. Now the country has hit its credit limit -- $7.38 trillion. But right-wing ideologues have no plans to change their policies. Instead, they want to grant themselves a $650 billion increase in their credit limit. The country actually reached its $7.38 billion credit limit in early October. Since that time, Treasury Secretary John Snow has employed a series of extraordinary accounting tricks to avoid technically breaching the limit. Why? Conservatives in Congress wanted to avoid "increasing the borrowing limit before the Nov. 2 election as leaders did not want to have the politically sensitive vote." This strategy is not without consequences. Snow's most recent "trick" -- announced yesterday -- was suspending investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. [more]