If we don't raise the debt ceiling Treasury's bank balance on Aug 3 is zero.

[dkf]

The Bipartisan Policy Center studied Treasury Department receipts and expenditures for August 2009 and 2010 and determined that the government likely would not have enough revenue to pay the full $23 billion payment to Social Security recipients due on Aug. 3.

On that day, according to the analysis, the government would take in about $12 billion in taxes and other revenue but would owe $32 billion, creating a $20 billion shortfall. It happens to be the first Wednesday of the month — the day a majority of Social Security recipients get their checks.



http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/29/257003/debt-ceiling-social-security-cuts/

[PoliticAverse]

1. The debt ceiling will be raised. The only question is what the deal to do so will look like. n/t

[dkf]

2. It wasn't til I saw it like this that I realized we really are broke.

[PoliticAverse]

6. I don't think the public really knows what financial trickery the Treasury might use...

to pay bills in the event of no debt limit increase by Aug 2.

[damntexdem]

12. We have no idea what will transpire -- and it is by no means certain that hte ceiling wil be raised.

Our political system is simply broken; and it is not clear how it can be fixed.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Too bad that graphic isn't on our 24/7 news channels or the front page of every newspaper. There's

a LTTE in the local paper today from a lady in a very heavy GOP district about emailing her Senators and her newly-elected Tea Party Rep. asking them to pass a law that she will continue to get her Social Security check. Claims President Obab 'is threatening us that we may not get of Social Security checks in August."

[emulatorloo]

4. It amazes me that the Republicans are willing to DESTROY the economy

to make political points.

I am starting to feel like they are ready to push the country off the cliff. The people who will suffer most are the majority of Americans.

[suston96]

5. Where is the overdraft protection......?

I, and millions of other Americans, have overdraft protection with our bill paying checking accounts. The US has never defaulted and certainly has good credit. Default, my ass.

And by the way, 'balanced budget amendment'? My ass, again. Instead of an amendment that would cripple the economics of the nation, how about an automatic debt ceiling rise mechanism that would kick in regardless and in spite of the antics of the political parties.

The Founders feared factionalism in the new nation they created. Politics playing with our economic life lines needs addressing at the constitutional level so that the political parties cannot hold hostage the full faith and credit of the United States.

[PoliticAverse]

9. The US actually (inadvertently) defaulted on some T-bills during the 1979 debt-limit crisis...

It was only $ 120 million but it happened and there was a lawsuit about it.

See: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/11/politics/washingtonpost/main20078437.shtml

The US also defaulted on securities a couple of other times in history but those were not debt-limit related.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Broke, huh? Gosh I wonder how that happened.

http://costofwar.com/en/

[CleanGreenFuture]

8. Haven't they already borrowed all the .gov pensions and the emergency fund

that is used to prop up the stock markets in the event of a crash?

I'd gather that means we're already at zero.

[PoliticAverse]

10. Yes they've been using financial trickery to actually reach the Aug 2nd date. n/t

[JDPriestly]

11. This is not surprising.

Wages in America have, on the average, not risen much compared to dollar value, in the past 40 years.

Yet spending on the military and on health care have skyrocketed. And since the 2008 depression started in the heartland, so has spending on things like food stamps, unemployment benefits, early Social Security benefits and similar programs to help people subsist.

The real problem is much more serious: creating jobs.

And to create jobs here we have to change our trade policy.

There is no way we can continue to import so much Chinese junk and outsource so many clerical and other jobs and have a large enough tax base to pay the cost of maintaining our infrastructure, our military and keep our children educated and our elderly breathing.

So, the focus should be on rewriting our trade agreements.

We need import taxes not just on products but also on services.