Virginia, the state where the politicians are proud to talk about how fiscally responsible they are, has debt problem. Over the last several years, legislators have whipped-out the state credit card and put us all into hock for any number of items — new schools, an additional to the Virginia Museum, some road work. The bills have piled up to such a degree that debt service payments will top nearly $600 million by 2012.  So how do we fix this growing problem? According to Senate Democrats, we need to raise the state’s debt limit.

In an interview last weekend with Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain told my colleague Scott Lee that Democratic staffers on the Senate Finance Committee — of which Obenshain is a member — raised the idea of increasing the debt ceiling from five percent of general fund revenues to seven percent. The rise was cast as a “thought experiment” more than as a hard and fast proposal.  Obenshain said that most members were “less than enthusiastic” about the idea, but that those who control the Finance Committee — mainly senior Democratic Senators from Northern Virginia, weren’t necessarily opposed to it.