See update below for correction.
The US media is too busy reporting on things like that pig John Edwards, and Christians trying to (gasp!) help Haitian children to waste any time looking into our rapidly ballooning national debt. Thank goodness the foreign press isn’t feeling any constraints by Team Obama.
AFP: 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.
But hey, nothing to see hear. Move along. The next generation can pay for it. Heck, they can’t even vote. May as well spend it while we can! Oh wait, sorry, we’re “investing” it. My bad.
Then again, we can always Blame it on Bush. That’ll make the kiddos feel better.
Find out if anyone else gives a hoot about the national debt at memeorandum.
Update: According to this Yahoo/AP story the US will hit the old debt ceiling by the end of the month. So we’ll only be $12.4 trillion in debt. That is, until we hit the next debt ceiling which shouldn’t take long. Either way, Moody’s issued a warning, and it isn’t good news.
The credit ratings agency cautioned that if the US were to grow at slower pace levels than expected, the largest economy in the world’s already-extended finances could be over-stretched, in turn damaging its AAA credit rating.
Were the US to lose its AAA rating, it could cause further financial damage, by increasing the cost of borrowing money, a necessary evil for a country predicted to have a $1.56 trillion (£980bn) budget deficit this year.
So, can anyone explain: If the same people who are spending the money like water are the ones who set the level of the “Debt Ceiling”, why, exactly, do we even have a “Debt Ceiling”?
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Another rhetorical question: Imagine if we all ran our finances like the federal government. Buying houses we can’t afford – oh wait. Never mind.
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AFP has the story wrong.
What the Treasury is saying is that they expect to hit the top of the *current* $ 12 trillion debt limit, not that they expect the national debt to surpass $ 14 trillion in the next 24 days.
The opening paragraphs of this AP story make that clear:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Treasury-expects-to-hit-debt-apf-2905598611.html?x=0
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Well, if it’s *only* going to be $12 Trillion….I feel much better now, thanks.
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Either way, it’s still bad news. They should repeal TARP now, pay down the debt and cancel raising the debt ceiling. This is out of control.
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Decrease in the dollar – one of the ways to repay debts that were taken at the old prices, the same digital sum, but with a changed price level.
Actually, the problem of debt – a very sensitive issue. Given that according to published information on the Internet U.S. national debt reached $ 14 trillion, then the question of relations with creditors is of great importance. How would I have decided to issue public debt without a substantial reduction in living standards of the debtor country, if I got a question? Although difficult to answer this question, the answer can be formulated, taking into account scientific and technical capacity of the state …Partly this response could be associated with a significant decrease in cost of this state for energy through science and technology to reduce the cost of energy resources, given the largely foreign character of energy supply in this state. I repeat, not at the expense of political or economic influence … The issue – a purely peaceful, using intelligence.
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