Give 'em an inch, they'll take a trillion

I saw this frightening graphic of our national debt at the Washington Post (click to enlarge or go here for the original post):

Note the red line - that's the debt ceiling. See how every single time it gets raised, our national debt grows to match it? We've created the financial equivalent of a goldfish growing to fit its tank.

Let's keep you in that little bowl, OK, Mr. Fish?

This is why we need to stop raising the flippin' debt ceiling. If the Republicans in Congress vote to raise it one more time to give them time to work out some longer term solutions, I can grudgingly accept that, but they had darn well better play some serious hardball with that vote and wrangle some real and significant spending cuts and reforms from the Democrats.

We can't afford to wait much longer.

[Cross-posted at The Minority Report, RedState, and RedCounty]