The gummint is going to buy its own debt. Wait, what?

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required for full article), the Federal Reserve is thinking about buying U.S. Treasury bonds as a way to lower interest rates. The government issues bonds because it has to borrow a triple gazillion dollars to bail out the banks, auto industry, and local pool hall. Investors who would normally buy these bonds aren't acting fast enough, so another part of the government will step in and purchase the bonds. In fact, "Disappointed that the central bank didn't take a more decisive step
toward buying government bonds, investors sold Treasury bonds Wednesday."
If we tried to do that, paying for our home mortgage with our credit cards or taking out a mortgage to pay our credit cards, for example, we'd be called irresponsible and just plain dumb.