From Google News
WASHINGTON — The US debt is on track to hit a congressionally proposed debt ceiling of 14.3 trillion dollars by the end of February, the Treasury said Wednesday, a day ahead of a key vote to raise it to that level.
"Based on current projections, Treasury expects to reach the debt ceiling as early as the end of February. However, the government's cash flows are volatile, making it difficult to forecast a precise date," the Treasury said in a statement.
The current limit on the public debt of the United States is 12.374 trillion dollars.
The US debt exceeded 12.349 trillion dollars on Monday, according to Treasury data.
The US House of Representatives will vote Thursday on whether to raise the US debt limit to a historic 14.3 trillion dollars, allowing the United States to borrow another 1.9 trillion dollars.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said representatives would take up the measure a week after the Senate approved the higher debt ceiling in a 60-39 vote.
In December, both houses agreed to increase the debt limit by an interim amount of 290 billion dollars to ensure the US government would continue to function.
The Senate also last week passed an amendment to legislation raising the debt ceiling that requires new budget items to be paid for, dubbed "pay-as-you-go."
The measure is intended to prevent the federal government from spending money it does not have and to control the massive US budget deficit.
The House has adopted a similar measure.
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I thought that this news story was interesting after Joe A's last comment on the "Ironic" post from the other day.
Joe A said, "Also, we're not going to pay off the debt, especially if we increase it. Let's not forget the unfunded liabilities of the grand government pyramid scheme known as social security and its relations. That's been estimated at around $50 trillion.
Ya, I find truth in the rhetoric of this question, to be frank: "Is America a society of law or is it simply one more corrupt and crumbling oligarchy about to collapse into the dustbin of history?"
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5 comments:
I'll grant them this: the U.S. government does have a talent for delaying the inevitable, although this is tantamount to allowing the burden to increasingly accumulate to further economically crushing proportions.
All we can do is trust in the Lord, the government was never meant to be trusted, and I think the American people did for a while. Politics are beginning to become very interesting now.
I seem to remember that at the end of Clinton's two terms America's balance of payments was healthier than it had been for decades (partly because it no longer had the expense of the cold war and partly because things were economically better). Bush came in and began tax cutting, but borrowed to meet the short fall. The his adminstration was happy to turn a blind eye to subprime mortgages and we all know where that led...
The bulk of America's financial problems at present are the result of propping up the banks - but if the banks had failed there would have been a mjor economic meltdown (not a bad idea in my book - but I am one of those irritating people who never uses credit (accept for a mortgage) and live by the rule that you should have at least six month's basic net salary in the bank before considering buying consumer goods and treats!!).
Here in the UK we are in similar trouble and I have little patience our prime minster, who as chancellor was happy to let the banks fund a credit fuelled (a euphemism for debt fuelled) boom. As you sow, so shall you reap. And although we're happy to blame government we are all responsible to a lesser or greater degree.
It'll get worse before it gets better. Perhaps us Capitalist countries should take a leaf out of China's book and stockpile currency before we start to spend it...
The Federal Reserve system is the problem.
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