Barack Obama, back on June 9, 2008:

George Bush’s policies have taken us from a projected $5.6 trillion dollar surplus at the end of the Clinton Administration to massive deficits and nearly four trillion dollars in new debt today . . . We can’t afford four more years of skewed priorities that give us nothing but record debt – we need change that works for the American people.

The news, today:

With the national debt projected to soar by nearly $1.4 trillion this year, congressional Democrats are planning a year-end push to dramatically increase the legal debt limit so they don’t have to revisit the politically uncomfortable issue in 2010, when they will face voters in November . . . House leaders have yet to settle on how much to raise the debt ceiling, now at $12.1 trillion.