NYT Editorial: Bringing Back the 30-Year Bond

On Halloween 2001, the United States Treasury said it would no longer issue a 30-year bond. The federal budget had been in the black for four years, and President Bush was still riding high on the $237 billion surplus he had inherited from the Clinton administration. "We do not need the 30-year bond to meet the government's current financing needs, nor those we expect to face in coming years," said the administration official who announced its demise.

Oh, for the good old days. Since 2002, annual deficits have added nearly $1 trillion to the nation's debt, bringing it to $4.3 trillion last year, nearly double what budget experts were projecting back in 2001. Yet the Treasury says that the nation's ballooning indebtedness is not a factor in its recent decision to consider reissuing the 30-year bond. Not a factor?