Another Possible Bump ($653 Million) to the Debt Ceiling ($9.62 TRILLION)

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/08/AR2006050801425.html?referrer=email

Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Page A21

A $2.7 trillion budget plan pending before the House would raise the federal debt ceiling to nearly $10 trillion, less than two months after Congress last raised the federal government's borrowing limit.

The provision -- buried on page 121 of the 151-page budget blueprint -- serves as a backdrop to congressional action this week. House leaders hope to try once again to pass a budget plan for fiscal 2007, a month after a revolt by House Republican moderates and Appropriations Committee members forced leaders to pull the plan.

<snip>

But the federal debt keeps climbing because of continued deficit spending and the government's insatiable borrowing from the Social Security trust fund.

With passage of the budget, the House will have raised the federal borrowing limit by an additional $653 billion, to $9.62 trillion. It would be the fifth debt-ceiling increase in recent years, after boosts of $450 billion in 2002, a record $984 billion in 2003, $800 billion in 2004 and $653 billion in March. When Bush took office, the statutory borrowing limit stood at $5.95 trillion.

...more...

Could the editors have made this very important piece of information any more buried? Did they print it in even finer print?

:mad:


The estimated population of the United States is 298,675,618
so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,000.86.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.95 billion per day since September 30, 2005

[oscar111]

1. 89 Trillion is a lot more than that little amount you are chatting about

its called "liabilities' in the fed reserves' Table L5

Anyone know what that is?

Wealth, one hundred sixteen trillion, liabilities eighty nine.

any comments on table L5 in general?

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



PS extra points.. what is the wealth of the world?

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I don't know if that's good or bad...

without digging further.

The chart is the total wealth of the US, presumably including what the gummint owns and owes.

For most businesses and individuals, this would mean a fairly decent balance sheet, for some it would be a hell of a good one. But, it is an aggregate of all sectors and apparently does not include fixed assets or capital-- just cash flow. That might make it even better for some.

But, we're still talking aggregates, and the distibution could be a BIG problem. Hedge funds, risk-heavy speculators, highly-leveraged investors, middle class overwhelmed with mortgage, car loans, and credit card debt, federal, state and local gummints ass-deep in debt alligators...

In too many of those groups blow, it's cutains because whoever's left with the gold probably won't be too interested in, or capable of, bailing the country out.

[salib]

10. How about a wealth tax

2% of that "Assets" would probably only impact 1/10th of 1% of the population in any significant way, yet would raise HUGE sums.

[Ezlivin]

2. Don't we have another credit card we can put it on?

You know, one with traveler's miles or something nice. With this sort of debt, we could all get first-class round trip tickets to Mars.

[Roland99]

3. Think they got one that offers free bunker-busting nukes w/every $billion

[cliss]

5. The technical term for insolvency is

when your debts exceed your assets.

Unless the US were to sell everything it has, cut down every tree & ship it to Japan, liquidate everything to cover its debts, we cannot cover these debts.

I'm not sure if liquidating everything would cover it. We're broke.

[oscar111]

15. No, pls see my reply no. one above

one hundred sixteen trillion assets.

not broke at all.

rolling in dough, it seems.

can anyone explain it ? I have no ax to grind, sincerely want it all explained to me.

[corporate_mike]

6. Fiscal conservatives ?!?

[MikeNearMcChord]

8. I can't to wait for Rush to blast

those darn "Tax and Spend" Demo...Oh Wait? Who is running the congress?:hi:

[Peter Frank]

11. Q) What's worse than taxing & spending?...

A) Cutting taxes & spending.

Bush's "Tinkle Down"/"Reverse Robin Hood" economics are sane only to the exclusive few who benefit.

Moreover, our monstrous debt to (still Communist) China is a "grave and gathering threat to our national security" -- infinitely more severe than any reasonable person could aver that Iraq ever was.

Yet this admin blithely "stays the course." This abjectly incomprehensible to me.

[IChing]

7. A trillion's meaning in a time perspective (from a old post of mine)

I think this would be a useful comparison to explain to someone what it means when we say 8 trillion dollars in debt.

In the U.S., one trillion is written as the number
"1" followed by 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000)



thousand; $ 8,000 seconds = 2.2 hours

tens of thousands $ 80,000 seconds = almost one day or .925

hundred of thousands $ 800,000 seconds = 9.25 days

million 8,000,000 seconds = around 3 months or 3.04 months

hundreds of millions 800,000,000 seconds = around 25 years or 25.36

billion 8,000,000,000 seconds = 253.6 years

trillion 8.000,000,000,000 seconds= 253,658 years

(60sec/min) x (60 min/hr) x (24 hr/da) x (365.25 da) = 3.16 x 107 sec
One trillion seconds of ordinary clock time =

( 1012 sec)/( 3.16 x 107 sec/yr) = 31,546 years!

8 x 31,546 years = 253,658 years!

[hunter]

9. That's $58,000 for every WORKING person.

Hell of a debt to have if you are working for minimum wage, isn't it?

[pa28]

12. "We're heading toward financial armageddon".

The Comptroller general of the U.S. said that. Not me.

Bush and the Republicans borrowed extra the last time around so they wouldn't have to ask again before the election. I guess they blew through it already.

[tabasco]

13. I laugh whenever I hear a brownshirt cry "tax and spend" liberal.

"Tax and spend" is another way of saying "paying the bills."

Republicans borrow and spend and still call themselves "conservatives."

Just WTF exactly are they conserving? Tax cuts for the rich, I suppose.

[wordpix2]

14. where the f**$$ck is this going to end? Pls. write the sleeping Congress!

[Nomen Tuum]

16. Why worry? Isn't Jesus doing the rapture next week?

This is what happens when the lunatics are put in charge.

90% of Congressional Republicans really believe Jesus is going to rapture them in a week or 2. What idiots!

[Javaman]

17. Ahhh, why not call it an even 10 trill? we are so fucked. nt

[distantearlywarning]

18. And what's worse:

They've decided to print more paper money in an effort to pay it all off.

[habitual]

19. this officially ends any meaningful use of the word 'ceiling'

if every time i want to go over a limit, i simply have to raise the limit, then there is no sense in having the limit.