The reconciliation process Congress is currently still entangled in was laid out in the budget resolution to include three components: one cutting the budget, one cutting taxes, and the third increasing the debt limit. It appears now that Congress will delay increasing the debt limit until February 2006. According to Congressional Quarterly, "higher-than-expected federal revenue from booming corporate tax receipts and slower spending on hurricane relief has given lawmakers room to delay the increase." This news should hardly be taken as good. Since 2001 Congress has raised the debt limit three separate times to keep up with federal spending and tax cuts. The monumental debt increases seen since 2001 are unprecedented. Raising the debt limit not only gives the President and Congress a blank check to continue engaging in irresponsible deficit spending, but it also increases the amount the government must spend paying interest on the debt each year. The chart below, courtesy of National Priorities Project, illustrates how national debt as a percentage of GDP has skyrocketed in recent years.