{"id":3168,"date":"2011-07-13T13:05:30","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T13:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=3168"},"modified":"2011-07-13T13:05:30","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T13:05:30","slug":"i_have_the_feeling_im_watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=3168","title":{"rendered":"I Have The Feeling I’m Watching A Child Threaten To Hold Her Breath Until She Turns Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Reuters.com<\/a> posted an article by James Pethokoukis about exactly what happens if the debt ceiling is not raised.  The article included this chart:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The chart illustrates a number of things.  Note how much more the government is spending than what it actually takes in.  Note also that interest is a major part of government’s monthly expenses.  One simple way to lower monthly expenses is to bite the bullet–cut overall spending and<\/u> begin to pay down the debt in order to decrease interest payments.<\/p>\n

The article answers a number of questions about what will happen if the debt ceiling is not raised.  Here are two of them:<\/p>\n

\n

Q: What happens on August 3 if the debt limit is not increased?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:  …  Using August 2010 spending and receipts as a proxy, the Treasury will probably take in $5-$10 bn in revenue on August 3, leaving insufficient revenues to make Social Security payments partly unfunded even if all other spending is deferred. Since the Treasury has carried a minimum cash balance of about $20 bn since 2009, and currently carries a balance of $74 bn, Social Security payments might still be made by drawing down the Treasury’s cash balance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Q: Are Treasury interest payments at risk?<\/p>\n

A: We do not think so.<\/strong> … There are two basic reasons that interest payments should not be called into question: First, if the August 2 deadline is missed, it is very difficult to see the debate dragging to August 15, when interest payments are made, since we doubt there will much congressional appetite for a protracted lapse in borrowing authority.  … Second, the Treasury is likely to prioritize payments. While the sharp fiscal contraction that would result from prioritization would have negative short-term economic consequences and would be difficult to implement, it nevertheless seems likely if necessary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Please follow the link to the article.  The article is one of the clearest explanations of what will happen if an agreement is not reached that I have seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Reuters.com posted an article by James Pethokoukis about exactly what happens if the debt ceiling is not raised.  The article included this chart: The chart illustrates a number of things.  Note how much more the government is spending than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}