Raising the debt limit?

[tiger8mush]

I don't know a lot about politics, but seems the older I get the more interested I'm becoming. Below is a snipet I was sent in an email:

From Sen. Obama’s Floor Speech, March 20, 2006: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better

If he said that back then, then he obviously knew our debt was an issue well before the deadline of the debt ceiling. He spoke about leadership, yet while in office our debt has continued to climb. Why wasn't action taken sooner (like his first year in office) so that we wouldn't continue running the gov't at a defecit? Or did he try and it just didn't work out for some reason?

I'm not saying this is or isn't Obama's fault, I'm just trying to learn.