Earlier today, the House voted to disapprove of Obama’s request for an additional $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.  Needless to say, they failed to garner the requisite two-thirds majority to preclude Obama from issuing more debt.  The total federal debt will inexorably rise to at least $16.4 trillion by the end of the year.

But wait.  Didn’t we pass a Budget Control Act to usher in a new era of budget austerity?

On August 1, the total federal debt stood at $14,342,358,440,969.10.  Today, it stands at $15,236,288,061,558.65.  That’s an increase of $894 billion.  What’s the significance of August 1?  That is the day Congress passed the Budget Out-of-Control Act.  It took us from the country’s founding until 1982 to accrue $894 billion in debt, yet we have accomplished that in a half year.

Thus, on average, we have incurred an additional $5.26 billion in debt since passage of the debt deal.  That’s $219 million per hour.

As Senator DeMint noted today, “This isn’t what winning looks like.”