U.S. Government Reaches $7.38 Trillion Debt Limit

[DustMolecule]

<snip>
The U.S. government reached the $7.384 trillion legal limit on how much it can borrow, forcing the Bush administration to shuffle funds among accounts and prompting fresh Democratic criticism of the president's economic policies.
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``The budget George Bush submitted to Congress in February 2001 promised that the debt ceiling would not have to be increased until 2008,'' said Jason Furman, an economic advisor to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. ``We could not have a more stark demonstration that George Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible president in American history.''

A spokesman for the Bush campaign, Brian Jones, declined to comment because ``this is nothing we have control over'' and referred a reporter to Snow's statement.
<snip>
While Treasury must always sell debt to fund government operations until taxes are received, the rising deficit is forcing the Bush administration to ask the limit be raised for a third time in less than four years.
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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=akgTO2BB5RdA&refer=us

[oscar111]

1. 105 Trillion total wealth

I am not trying to say the debt is not important, just want to throw this fact out for those stat mavens who have not seen it yet.

Odd how few know this "framework" stat..

total wealth of the usa

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l5.htm

see bottom line... and if you think liabilities will never be "forgiven" as sometimes happens.. then see also line twenty. If sub liabilities, wealth is "only" twenty five trillion.

Personally, i would roll back bushes three cuts totalling about 340 Billion, and use them to

End all poverty by adding ten thousand to the income of all our poor... $3OO Billion

Double the NIH from thirty to seventy billion. That would cut time for finding a cure for cancer from about ten years, to FIVE.

I would return to Ike's tax structure of '52, to pay off the nat'l debt fast, avoiding those ruinous interest fees.

[izzie]

2. Is that the word? That we are so rich it is OK?

I have heard that said over and over. Trouble is someone has to pay it back and who to. A bank may not care if you loose your home but the bank does care if the man who built 100 homes may go under. It will do a lot to keep that man out of the red and keep going as you go under.So what will this country do to keep the countries buying our debt and us for them to keep this all going? Just who owns the debt and who will pay it off? And what are they getting for it and what will Bush give to keep it going? What happens if these countries like Euros in place of dollars? what happens if these countries make their own money the trade deal.

[oscar111]

3. izzie, that's not what i meant

Hi izzie, good to see you again here...

I didnt mean to imply the debt is ok. I just read the post on the debt , and it made me think of a related stat which is basic, and how sad it is that very few know it.

So i wanted to post the wealth total while all the finance types were reading a thread. So they would learn the total wealth.

I didnt mean the debt is ok... and to prove it, i went on to urge Ike's tax structure to quickly pay off the debt.

[cthrumatrix]

4. this happens when you don't "veto" a spending bill in 4 yrs.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. It Also Happens When One Reduces Revenues

Lower taxes mean lower revenues to the gov't. To offset this must be followed with spending restraint. Li'l Georgie's gang did the former but not the latter.

And, they know it too! One of these dimbulbs remembers Econ 101 and that GDP = C + GS + TP + NE. If they lower GS by showing restraint, the economy can't be made to look like it's rising due to the brilliance of the tax cuts. They learned this from the idiot Reagan. Cutting taxes DOES NOT STIMULATE THE ECONOMY except in the most dire of circumstances. The economy was "stimulated" both now and in the 80's by the gov't spending gobs of cash it didn't have!

Talk about smoke and mirrors.
The Professor