US gov't $25 mln from debt ceiling-Treasury

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-02-17T224553Z_01_N17157499_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-TREASURY-DEBT.XML

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has moved to within $25 million of its $8.184 trillion debt ceiling, the Treasury said on Friday, but it expects to stay below the limit for up to another month through stop-gap cash flow measures.

The Treasury said its total public debt subject to the statutory debt limit rose $10.03 billion on Thursday to $8,183,975,000,000.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has urged Congress to raise the debt limit, has said stop-gap measures could keep the government from defaulting on its financial obligations until mid-March.

On Thursday, the Treasury said it would dip into a federal pension system fund by curbing daily reinvestments of the fund's assets in order to stay below the debt limit.

<snip>

The Treasury also this week suspended sales of state and local government non-marketable securities, or SLGS, as a means of limiting its cash outflows. SLGS are sold to municipal bond issuers for the reinvestment of bond proceeds.

...more...

here's the government's own website:

The Debt To the Penny

Current           Amount

02/16/2006        $8,248,610,906,449.65

or the "Debt Clock"


The estimated population of the United States is 298,553,170
so each citizen's share of this debt is $27,609.35.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$2.21 billion per day since September 30, 2005

Hmmm... $25 Million won't last through today.

$70+ million for probaganda in Iran, or where ever the hell it is he wasn't to spread it, do an across the board cut in the number of aids, staffers & assistants the Feds have, and STOP funding the DOD! IMMEDIATELY!

drunk for Bush.

That $27K per citizen is actually closer to $100K when you factor in interest.

Kind of like your typical $100K mortgage actually costs you $300K.



Hmmm... $25 Million won't last through today.

Hmmm. $25M won't last through this post!



ETA: Any right thinking politician would put an end to this absurd cycle of self-immolation.

virtual :toast:

:(

Can't really afford one on the money that is no longer there.

:toast:


Insanity.

x(

weekend.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/22/politics/main555108.shtml

(CBS) Without comment or ceremony, President Bush on Tuesday signed a bill allowing a record $984 billion increase in the amount the federal government can borrow, to a record $7.4 trillion.

The increased federal borrowing will enable the government to pay for the $350 billion economic stimulus package that the GOP-led Congress passed last week at Mr. Bush's behest.

Mr. Bush will hold a signing ceremony at the White House on Wednesday to celebrate passage of that legislation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced. The package includes $330 billion in tax cuts and $20 billion in aid for states.

Passage of the bill raising the nation's debt ceiling came last Friday, only hours after the tax-cut bill was approved. Congressional Democrats had sought to spotlight the federal IOUs that have resumed piling up under Mr. Bush.

But Republican leaders maneuvered to get the debt-ceiling measure passed quickly, and with little fanfare.

The Senate gave the bill final congressional approval by 53-44 on Friday.

Republican leaders did not bring the measure to the Senate floor until the House had left town for a weeklong Memorial Day recess.

"Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has urged Congress to raise the debt limit, has said stop-gap measures could keep the government from defaulting on its financial obligations until mid-March."

He makes it sound like we'll still default in mid-March even with stop gap measures. So what happens when the government defaults on its loans?

we should go through that in a jiffy! Wonder what they will stop paying next? :hi:

"worthless IOUs" that the Social Security Trust Fund is holding.

richer, that's why. The American Traitor pResident has finished looting the Iraqis' oil and our Treasury yet.

Well, alot of things could happen. Maybe it would put a stop to the mass production of paper bills. Just because ya MAKE more money, doesn't mean you HAVE more money. Hyper-inflation, devaluing of choice stock, what happen to the days of quarter cent meals and gas for a nickel you ask? Wait until a can of Coke costs $3.00 (it already does if you go out to eat, etc.) and gas is $5.00 a gallon. Then watch it go up some more. Our gummit shits more than $25 million, even on a diet!

So now what? A special Congressional floor vote and simply raise the debt ceiling again another trillion dollars?

Twenty five million is going to last a month.... I don't think so....Over a half million a MINUTE on Just the INTEREST on our Debt. We have not paid a bit of Principle since Clinton.

McLaughlin declined to say when the Treasury may take other actions to keep below the debt limit. The Treasury also has said it could tap into the federal government's Exchange Stabilization Fund and the Civil Service Retirement Fund.

I seem to remember that losses incurred to the ESF weren't made up during the debt crisis in the 90's, so I went looking for something that supported that. I came across this (page 11):

http://www.tsp.gov/curinfo/pressrel/GFUND_GAO_AIMD-96-130_debt-ceiling_Aug1996.pdf

When Treasury departed from its normal investment and redemption
polices and procedures during the 1995-1996 debt ceiling crisis, the Civil
Service fund, the G-Fund, and the Exchange Stabilization Fund incurred
interest losses. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 8348(j) and 5 U.S.C. 8438(g),
Treasury restored the interest losses to the Civil Service fund and G-Fund,
respectively, once the Congress raised the debt ceiling. The Exchange
Stabilization Fund lost $1.2 million in interest that cannot be restored
without special legislation.


Not sure what to make of it all, but with the suspension of M3 reporting coming up in March, the flood of global liquidity and all those yen that must be in the ESF from Japan's earlier currency interventions, I've got to wonder if this latest "debt ceiling" hasn't being somewhat planned to skim a little liquidity out of the system. (I'm guessing it's not considered a debt crisis unless the ceiling isn't raised.) Is Snow/Bushco somehow looking to repay the Japanense CB favors and reduce some of the excess liquidity at the same time? The vote role call on raising the ceiling might be quite telling.

I'm still trying to find a simple graph or table of previous debt ceiling/crises. The 1996 paper posted above states " In the past 50 years, the Congress has enacted about 60 temporary and permanent increases in the debt ceiling." It touches on what were considered previous "crises" in '79, '85 and '95.


Not sure what to make of it all, it just seems fishy. :shrug: Then again, I usually tend to reach for my :tinfoilhat: whenever they start messing with the ESF.

Read my lips, no more neocons!

It's bad, but it's not actually as bad as some may think. We're comparable to France and Germany at the moment. Our public debt as percentage of GDP is going to be 70% before Bush is done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

what a bunch of idiots...