Imagine if credit card companies let customers raise their credit limits any time they maxed out. No way that’s going to happen.

But that’s the system Washington uses. Last week, Congress raised the limit on the national debt to almost $9 trillion.

The original idea of requiring Congress to raise the debt limit was that it would attract negative public attention. But hikes in the debt limit happen so frequently these days that last week’s action didn’t create much of a ripple. The hike in the debt limit was the fourth in five years.

As every credit cardholder eventually learns, sooner or later the debt must be paid.

Consider these factoids.

n The current debt of $8.27 trillion is equivalent to about $27,000 per U.S. resident.

n Interest paid on the debt is the fifth largest item in the the federal budget. The amount of the so-called “debt tax” last year is equivalent to $1,190 per American.

n About 45 percent of that debt is owed to foreigners. The interest American taxpayers pay on the debt is transferred out of the country into foreign pockets.

n The speed at which the national debt is accumulating is accelerating rapidly. It took the United States until 1989 to reach its first $3 trillion in debt. It hit $6 trillion in 1997.

Republicans in Congress continue to act as though the nation’s financial problems are someone else’s fault. Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said, “Bureaucrats in Washington (will have) to tighten their belts,” the Washington Post reported.

Aw, man. How long can get they away with that old trick?

The Republicans have been in charge of both houses of Congress and the presidency for the past five years.

Complacency runs so deep in the country that representatives of some of the nation’s top think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution, are participating in a national Fiscal Wake-up Tour to stir debate.

An appearance is slated for 9 a.m. April 4 in the Scott Conference Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The tour was organized by the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan organization co-chaired by former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey.

One of those scheduled to speak is David Walker, U.S. comptroller general. In the past, Walker has told audiences that the nation’s financial condition is “even worse than advertised.”

It’s time Americans started heeding those warnings. After all those years of promised fiscal restraint, the Republicans in charge in Washington have proven only that they can’t live within their credit limit. Their promises are as empty as the nation’s treasury.