Actually, they’ve always accepted them, but Reuters thought that with the debt creeping up on $8 trillion, America could do with a reminder.

If my math is right, it’ll take about $25,000 per person. Dig deep.

The U.S. Treasury Department accepts gifts, payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt. Just mail them to the attention of Department G, Post Office Box 2188, Parkersburg, West Virginia, 26106-2188. Make a note in the memo section that it is a gift to reduce the debt held by the public.

Yes, really…

Do people really send in checks? How much and what reasons do they give for voluntarily paying more than just their taxes? And why are the checks directed to a post office box in West Virginia?

According to Treasury spokesman Kim Treat, people do send checks. In the last fiscal year they added up to a little over $3 million, which was the highest total since at least 1996.

Some include notes. Common reasons for donating include a sense of patriotism and immigrants expressing their thanks to the United States for giving them an opportunity, he said.

Here’s the website; scroll down to the end for payment information. Liberals can, presumably, use this as a way to supplement their annual tax payments until a more “patriotic” set of brackets is in place.

Meanwhile, news this morning from the Journal is that Team Barry plans on “cutting the deficit” by choosing not to flush an extra few hundred billion down the toilet.

Update: Fine words, but maybe not the best guy to be voicing them.