Avoiding any hurtful comments to debt donors, Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Va., budget watchdog group, said that they generally seem to be "very well-intentioned, patriotic people who have a genuine concern for the fate of their country."

"However," he said, "it makes little sense to send a few bucks to the Treasury while we are hemorrhaging more than $1 trillion a year. " He advised would-be donors to devote themselves instead to demanding balanced-budget plans from Congress.