Govt hit the Natl Debt Limit on May 18, and all addl borrowing has STOPPED since then

Little-Acorn

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Normally the government hits the National Debt limit like a dozen times a year. And they just quietly pass a law raising the Debt Limit, and keep right on borrowing more and more.

You may recall that in 2010, TEA Party members in the House of Representatives, ran on the promise to end crazy borrowing and spending. And a lot of them were elected on that basis. So in 2011, when one of these Debt-Ceiling votes came up, they dug in their heels and refused to approve it. The screaming was deafening, government started shifting money from various retirement accounts to pay for the (ongoing) spending, the National Debt flatlined for a month or two, and eventually the TEA partiers caved and borrowing resumed.

The result was a Supercommitee to cut spending (they never cut any), and across-the-board cuts ("sequestration") as a result of the Supercommittee's failure. A new Debt Limit was set at just over $16.4 trillion.

Well, we hit that Debt Limit again on Jan. 1, 2013. More screaming resulted, and Congress decided to do away with the limit for five months. Sequestration cut in on April 1, and the Debt Limit was automatically reinstated at just over $16.7 trillion on May 18. Ever since that time, the govt has been raiding the Federal retirement accounts etc. once again to pay for the (neverending) spending, and there has been no new borrowing since the end of March.

natldebt_01oct2012-16jul2013-gif.415


But the strangest thing is: This time there have been NO reports of congressional battles to approve a Debt-ceiling increase. Nothing at all on TEA Party stubbornness, nothing on the wisdom (or folly) of not raising the limit.

Not a word. Dead silence.

The National Debt has been rising since before most of us were born. "Borrow and Spend" has been the watchword, the theme to live by, of leftist government since its inception.

Every time a limit on borrowing has even been mentioned, the person mentioning it has been ridiculed. When a limit was proposed, the proposer was crucified. And when it actually WAS halted for a few brief months in 2011, the media acted like the world had ended (which, for the Left, it almost had).

Now for the last several months in 2013, borrowing has been abruptly halted again. And we haven't heard a peep about it. Not from leftist congressmen, not from the press, not even from the leftist Prsident and his usual cohorts. NOT ONE WORD.

I'm sure huge battles are going on, somewhere, to get rid of the Debt Limit (as usual) and resume borrowing. But why have we heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them?
 
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Now for the last several months in 2013, borrowing has been abruptly halted again. And we haven't heard a peep about it. Not from leftist congressmen, not from the press, not even from the leftist Prsident and his usual cohorts. NOT ONE WORD.

I'm sure huge battles are going on, somewhere, to get rid of the Debt Limit (as usual) and resume borrowing. But why have we heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them?

Found a little bit.

But there has to be more.

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House Republicans pass restrictive debt ceiling bill | The Raw Story

House Republicans pass restrictive debt ceiling bill

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, May 9, 2013 19:31 EDT

The US House passed a Republican bill along party lines Thursday that lawmakers say would remove the threat of default, while requiring the government to prioritize its debt and pension payments.

The legislation would allow the US Treasury to borrow beyond its legal limit in order to pay down government debt and make Social Security payments, in the event that Congress fails to negotiate a rise of the debt ceiling in the coming weeks.
 
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The last time this happened, in 2011, the govt started paying normal operating expenses (and entitlements and all the rest) out of various Federal employee retirement funds they had access too. A huge ruckus was raised, and a lot of people thought that was strictly illegal, and pointed out that if a private company did that, the bosses would all be thrown in jail for a very long time.

But the Democrats got away with it. And now they appear to be doing the same thing again this time, but nobody is talking about it at all, as though it were just a normal way of doig business.

Apparently we will have to wait until all those retirement funds etc. are exhausted too, which they say will happen around September 2013.

Let me guess: They will start blaming Republicans at that point. Right?
 
It's now 70 days since we hit the Debt Ceiling on May 18, and the National Debt has not increased a penny since then.

The govt is still spending like crazy, of course. But instead of borrowing new money as they usually do, they are now draining various pension fund of their money, and spending that to keep the votes coming in. This would be illegal for any private company, of course, and the CFO and other senior officers of any company that did this, would be thrown in jail for fraud an embezzlement. Only in the U.S. government is it considered OK.

The big-govt advocates (in both parties) apparently figure that the Debt Ceiling will be voted upward soon, and they will be able to borrow enough after that, to pay back all the money they've taken from the retirement etc. accounts. No blood, no foul. They're even referring to this practice as "the standard extraordinary measures", without even bothering to grin at the inherent contradiction in the name.

Of course, the government is routinely paying off $billions in bonds and other debt... and re-borrowing exactly enough to make up for it, every day. That's part of the "normal business" that's been going on every day for a century. But for once, they are not borrowing MORE than they pay off.

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70 Straight Days: Treasury Says Debt Stuck at Exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 | CNS News

70 Straight Days: Treasury Says Debt Stuck at Exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00

July 29, 2013 - 5:21 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) - According to the Daily Treasury Statement for July 26, which the Treasury released this afternoon, the federal debt has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 70 straight days.

That is approximately $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 that Congress has imposed on the debt.

The portion of the federal debt subject to the legal limit set by Congress first hit $16,699,396,000,000.00 at the close of business on May 17. At the close of every business day since then, it has also been $16,699,396,000,000.00, according to the official accounting published by the Treasury Department.

If the debt had increased by even $30 million at any time during those 70 days, it would have exceeded the statutory limit. But, according to the Treasury, the debt did not do that. Instead, it remained precisely $16,699,396,000,000.00.

(snip)

On May 17, the day the debt began its long stay at $16,699,396,000,000.00, Treasury Secretary Lew sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. In the letter, Lew said the Treasury would begin implementing what he called “the standard set of extraordinary measures” that allows the Treasury to continue to borrow and spend money even after it has hit the legal debt limit.
 
All news only to hater dupes. Dems want to avoid the "DEBT CEILING CRISIS!!!" as long as possible, of course. It's the stupidest and most destructive idiocy ever. Pub a-holes and silly dupes. Ruining the recovery since 2/4/2010- when they got the filibuster back.
 
Normally the government hits the National Debt limit like a dozen times a year. And they just quietly pass a law raising the Debt Limit, and keep right on borrowing more and more.

Nope. The debt ceiling has been raised only 14 times since 2001. Not 144.
 
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The Treasury is using accounting tricks. It has issued more debt than it has redeemed since May.
 

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