Big and Bigger

It's that time again...

"Obama to Ask for Debt Limit Hike: Treasury Official" (Reuters)

The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government's debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.

The approval is expected to go through without a challenge, given that Congress is in recess until later in January and the request is in line with an agreement to keep the U.S. government funded into 2013.

The debt is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by December 30, when the United States has $82 billion in interest on its debt and payments such as Social Security coming due. President Barack Obama is expected to ask for authority to increase the borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion, part of the spending authority that was negotiated between Congress and the White House this summer.

Big numbers, eh? Then again, based on data derived from the latest Citizen's Guide to the 2011 Financial Report of the U.S. Government (hat tip to The Aleph Blog for the link and columnar summary), maybe not...

Almost $61 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities -- now that's a big number!

Comments

[roger]

Big and Bigger, the chaos will intensify.
Insolvent and ungovernable,the quality and
intellect of our leadership is headed for the
gutters regardless of whom the electorate chose.

[David Merkel]

Glad to be of service, Michael. Hope you are doing well.

[Serious, serious problem]

Jim Rogers’ Outlook For 2012 & Beyond
Explains why he moved to Singapore (likes China, but Bejing & Shanghai too polluted)
He’s short stocks “across the world”
Long commodities
Long gold, silver
Crisis still imminent, better to take the hit now

http://www.bearishnews.com/post/4733

[Doable Finance]

When I came to the States in the 70s, I heard America was built on spending. But this is just crazy.

[Don Levit]

All debt is not created equal.
There are actually four levels of debt, according to the federal government.
The first and strongest commitment to pay off is Explicit Liabilities. Included here is debt held by the public.
The weakest level of debt is Exposures implied by current policies or the public's expectations about the role of government.
Included here is intragovernmental debt, and future Social Security and Medicare payments.
The paper is entitled "Federal Debt, Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, An Update," published by the GAO.
Go to: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04485sp.pdf.
Don Levit

[Don Levit]

For the GAO paper, look on pages 65 and 66.
Don Levit

[Andrew Statezny]

Agreed! I understand the need for spending at times, but this is entirely too destructive. If you can be addicted to cigarettes or eating, then this is definitely an addiction to overcome.

[honeybadger]

I notice that there is no line-item for war-related costs.

[Just do it.]

Don't know about medicare, but I think SS can be funded with a modest increase in the payroll tax. Each senator/congressman/president that vote for or signed into law the current 2% payroll tax cut should be tried for treason against the people of the US, convicted, and executed.

Also, immediately, all federal, state and local government pension funds should be dumped into SS and all present and future pensioners should immediately be put on SS - if their pension is greater than the max SS then they should receive max SS.

SS problems solved. Period.