Not only would the cash blanket all of the land from Weber County to Utah County, the debt it represents would bury each Utahn in IOUs. Divided by the population, every American's share of the debt is now nearly $28,000.

Utah's delegation may hold its collective nose, but the Republican members have repeatedly voted for the legislation allowing the government to borrow more money.

"I don't like raising the debt ceiling," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. "It's like buying bigger clothes when you are trying to lose weight. It doesn't encourage you to be responsible and it isn't fiscally conservative.

"We need to have the guts to get our fiscal house in order, and that includes making tough votes."

The House budget bill approved earlier this month included a provision raising the statutory debt limit to $9.62 trillion in anticipation of deficit spending that will bust through the ceiling set just two months ago. If the Senate follows suit later this year, it would be the fifth time since 2002 that Congress raised the limit, upping the credit limit by 50 percent in that span.

Consider it economic stimulus by plastic, but it has conservatives fuming.

"The level of fiscal irresponsibility that is going on in this Congress is staggering," said J. William Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union. "It's unconscionable."

Part of the spending spree has been driven by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But that accounts only for part of the recent deficits that have driven the national debt to nearly $8.4 trillion. The government spent $352 billion last year in interest on the debt.

And with last week's vote, the credit limit looks to be headed higher. How much is $9.62 trillion?

Picture this: Start at the tip of Weber County with a pile of $10 bills, lay them side by side and keep going, moving south, covering every single inch of land in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties with an Alexander Hamilton quilt - and still have $68 billion left over.

Congress' hands are tied to some degree, since failing to raise the debt limit could prevent the federal government from borrowing money it needs to pay its bills and meet its legal obligations.

Cannon and Rep. Rob Bishop say they vote each year for a leaner budget, but it gets voted down.

There is no question, Bishop says, that Congress needs to get a handle on spending, and that includes tackling entitlements - things like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The wrong thing to do, he said, would be to raise taxes to balance the budget.

"Increasing taxes does not spur on deficit reduction of balanced budgeting. All it does is produce more spending," Bishop said. And putting Democrats in charge would only make things worse, he predicts. "If there was a change in party control you would not see smaller budgets and you would not see the government doing less," Bishop said.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has voted against each Republican budget and, consequently, each debt limit increase, although they have typically been near-party-line votes.

"I refuse to write these blank checks for hundreds of billions of dollars" without any discussion on how to wean the government off the pattern of deficit spending, he said.

Matheson and other so-called Blue Dog Democrats in Congress support passing a balanced budget amendment, requiring any new government spending to be offset by cuts elsewhere or increased revenue and demanding better accountability from departments.

"We have to put external controls in," he said. "Getting [members of Congress] to all agree to tighten their belt in a way that controls the budget is difficult to do, regardless of which party is in power. Institutionally, it is very difficult for Congress to live within its means."

Upping the debt limit has become so routine that when Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, he recommended doing away with it, since it had failed to curb congressional spending.

But Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, vice-chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, says the debt needs to be put into perspective.

Indeed, in real dollar terms, the debt is enormous, he says, but it is a manageable portion of the nation's overall economic production, or gross domestic product.

Why does that matter? Take as an example a family with $1,000 in credit card debt. It is a big deal if they make $10,000 a year, not as important if they make $100,000.

Something still needs to be done to hold down government spending, but cutting out the so-called pork projects won't do it, Bennett says. To really get spending under control, Congress has to deal with entitlements, which now make up two-thirds of all federal spending.

''Everyone thinks it's the 'bridge to nowhere,' but it's the entitlements'' that fuel the debt, Bennett said. ''We've got to get the courage to deal with those entitlements. . . . All of the posturing that goes on in this is frankly nothing but posturing if people are not willing to deal with the entitlements.''

Bennett has proposed a plan to rework Social Security, but the will in Congress to deal with that issue evaporated long ago.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, points to the stiff Democratic opposition earlier this year to a proposal to hold down growth in entitlement programs like student loans, crop subsidies and Medicaid as a source of difficulty ahead.

"Right now, Republicans and Democrats just don't see eye to eye on this," Hatch said. "The real issue here . . . is federal spending. We wouldn't need to increase the debt limit if we stayed within our budget."

But Lauderback says the Republican Party needs to take its lumps for not holding the line on government spending.

"There is nobody to blame but the people who control two houses of Congress and the White House," he said. "That's not to say the Democrats wouldn't have put us even more in debt. I believe they would have. But you've got to lay the blame at the feet of the people in control."

If it's not brought under control, Lauderback said, he anticipates renewed interest in a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Hatch has supported a balanced budget amendment since coming to Congress in 1977, as do other members of the Utah delegation, with the exception of Bennett, who has changed his view since he was first elected.