Our irresponsible finance!

By a 269-161 vote in the House and a 74-26 vote in the Senate, Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation this week to begin dealing with the long-term congressional and presidential irresponsibility that has burdened the United States with a $14.3 trillion debt.

The deal paves the way for big, quick increases in the non-limiting "debt limit" and supposedly similarly sized cuts in spending, though many cuts would happen years from now, if at all. Here is the basic outline of the deal:

* The bill would start by cutting deficits by $917 billion -- over the coming decade.

* In exchange for those cuts, the debt limit would be raised by about the same amount -- which would cover Washington's out-of-control spending only through early 2012.

* More than a third of the initial cuts would come from national defense. Other cuts would be to domestic spending, excluding Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. (The deal does not really even begin to reform entitlements, even though some of them are headed for bankruptcy.)

* By late November, a committee of Congress will recommend additional cuts of up to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and Congress has to vote on those cuts, without any amendments, by late December. If the cuts don't pass, there would be automatic cuts in federal spending starting in 2013, though Social Security, Medicaid, pensions and programs for low-income Americans would be exempted. There could be some limited cuts to Medicare, but half the cuts -- a huge amount -- would come from national defense.

* After that second round of cuts (or possible cuts) the "debt limit" would again be allowed to rise -- by at least $1.2 trillion! That would provide enough borrowing authority to let the president and Congress get past the 2012 elections before our nation once again faces a crisis.

We understand the views of some who voted for this deal to head off a partial default by the U.S. government on its debts. That would have had serious ramifications for our economy. But the deal does not realistically get a handle on our massive national debt, which threatens worse ramifications.

As Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said, "At the end of the day, this bill allows Washington to continue business as usual in the irresponsible way it spends hard-earned tax dollars."

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