Time running out on debt ceiling (Tick-Tock run out that clock)

cnn ^ | 11/27/2012 | By Jennifer Liberto and Jeanne Sahadi

[tobyhill]

Congress must raise the debt ceiling before the end of February, and possibly sooner. If it doesn't, the United States risks defaulting on its payments to creditors.

That's the key takeaway from a new report released Tuesday by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The group, an independent think tank, analyzed patterns in the Treasury Department's monthly cash flow and obligations to assess just how much time it has to continue paying the country's bills in full and on time if lawmakers don't raise the legal borrowing limit.

The debt ceiling is currently set at $16.394 trillion. By the end of last week, the debt subject to that limit had reached $16.268 trillion.

Treasury has been saying for months that it expects the country to hit the debt ceiling by the end of this year. But it says it can stave off the risk of default until sometime in early 2013 through the use of "extraordinary measures," such as temporarily using federal workers' retirement savings normally invested in government bonds.

Those extraordinary measures can provide about $197 billion of breathing room, which could cover the financing needs until sometime in February, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates.

The United States doesn't bring in enough revenue to pay all its bills, so it borrows to make up the difference. Monthly deficits typically run between $100 billion to $125 billion.

[Big Giant Head]

Pay, pensions and perks of all legislators past and present rescinded until the debt is paid off and a surplus clock starts ticking.

I think this should be the FIRST thing looked at. We could probably run the government for a couple of days off this money, at least.

[PGalt]

Debt is a tool for plunderers(socialists/UNaccountable bureaucrats) to take us to TOTALITARIANISM. Witness it unfolding.

[morphing libertarian]

Parliament of whores

[JLS]

It does not matter what Obama or the Dims submit. If the debt ceiling is not raised, then the government can only spend what comes in.

[Revel]

Rumor has it that Turbo Tax cheat Timmy is already dipping into the federal retirement funds. Which would explain why the debt ceiling has not already hit the limit as it was expected to do some time ago.

The problem with that will be that they won’t have as much to work with when the official numbers do reach the ceiling.

[familyop]

"Or as P. J. O’Rourke wrote: 'Like giving car keys and whiskey to teen age boys.'"

What we're seeing with bipartisan government spending is comparable to giving car keys, marijuana, methamphetamine and whiskey to a carload of adults of both sexes and randomly diverse perversions.

[DuncanWaring]

Paying more taxes to government is like giving heroin to a heroin addict.

Not quite.

If you give a heroin addict enough heroin, they'll eventually OD and then they need no more heroin.

There is no level of taxes which will make a government OD and need no more taxes.