Posted on 04/01/2011 5:34:39 AM PDT by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) - Imagine that you had an average monthly income of about $170 balanced against average monthly expenses of about $940--and that you were more than $14,000 in debt.
Then imagine that as of today, you had only $58.60 in cash left in your bank account and $130.50 left on your line of credit.
Now multiply these numbers by 1 billion and you will have the up-to-date financial situation of the U.S. government.
According to the Daily Treasury Statement released by the U.S. Treasury Department today at 4:00 p.m., the Treasury had $58.6 billion in cash in its accounts as of the close of business on Tuesday. That was down from $190.6 billion at the beginning of March and $309.8 billion at the beginning of this fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2010.
In the first five months of this fiscal year (Oct.-Feb.), the federal government averaged $169.6 billion per month in revenue. (During these months, the Treasury brought in a cumulative total of $845.3 billion—including all moneys from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, estate taxes and other taxes.)
In the same five months that it was averaging this $169.6 billion in revenue, the federal government was averaging $943.4 billion in monthly spending. (During those months, the Treasury actually spent $4.717 trillion—including, for example, $2.492 trillion to pay off the holders of Treasury securities that had matured, $245.7 billion in Social Security benefits, $212.8 billion in Medicare benefits, $158.4 billion to pay defense contractors, $113.0 billion for Medicaid benefits, $111.6 billion for Department of Education programs, $94.3 billion in interest on debt, $73.4 billion in salaries for federal workers, and $26.7 billion in insurance benefits for federal workers.)
All of these cumulative federal expenditures--and more—from the period of October through February were itemized in the “withdrawal” column of “Table II” in the Daily Treasury Statement for Feb. 28.
Thus far in March, as itemized in the Daily Treasury Statement released today, the federal government has spent $927.3 billion while taking in $184.2 billion in revenue.
Currently, the legal limit on the federal debt (as set in law by an act passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama) is $14.2940 trillion. As of the close of business Tuesday, the portion of the national debt subject to this legal limit was $14.1635 trillion.
That leaves the federal government with just $130.5 billion in legal borrowing authority.
When that $130.5 billion in remaining legal borrowing authority is added to the Treasury’s $58.6 billion cash on hand, it leaves the government with a net $189.1 billion in spending room—or about one-fifth of the federal government’s $943.4 billion monthly spending habit.
It is my belief that at least 30% of any programs fat could be elliminated before any real pain is felt throughout the system.
Lets just pray that we rid ourselves of this UnAmerican NonLeader, Obama, in 2012. If not, the USA most likely will not survive. Obama's policies make it clear that the man has no idea what he is doing, he is like a kid in a candy factory but his candy is the taxpayer money! And all this from an UnKnown Person who lets good, decent military officers go to prison all because Obama does not want anyone to see his Long Form Birth Certificate! People are sitting in Prison, Careers Ruined, all because of Obama's refusal to show America his BC! Now, is it me, or does anyone else think this is strange behavior for someone who wants to be leader of the Greatest Nation on Earth?
Wife and I just mailed in $2,900 more for our 2010 taxes.... that should keep the government going for a while longer.
Because the Republicans in "leadership" like to spend your money just as much as the Dims?
Don’t worry! The GOP has a plan that will save us millions of dollars!!
I remember when a million dollars meant something. Today it’s chump change!
How anyone would initiate a military operation — a third one, no less, during a fiscal state such as this ...well, it almost seems suicidal.
How anyone would initiate a military operation — a third one, no less, during a fiscal state such as this ...well, it almost seems suicidal.
Maybe the Republican leadership knows something the Tea Party doesn’t. When the merrygoround stops the merrygoround breaks.
Sorry for the double post.
What I find really strange, living here in DC, is in the middle of this so-called economic downturn, the number of mega mansions and overpriced homes STILL being thrown up around the Falls Church, Arlington area. I mean —little luxury estates ...breaking ground all over. Our neighborhood is full of knockdowns, where they tear down a tiny little rambler and put up a 3 story oversized brand new custom home w/ all the bells and whistles. I wonder — WHO the hell are these people — are they linked to the government? Lawyers? Foreigners? The wealth on display is just mind blowing. But it seems its just inside the beltway. Further south, in the outlying suburbs ..homes still stay forclosed.
So far, we have met only one couple who has moved into one of these things ..and they are both lawyers.
-——I wonder — WHO the hell are these people-——
The unionized Smithsonian guards are moving out of DC
No doubt they are people who do some kind of government contract work, if they are not directly employed by the government.
-——Why is the Republican leadership not demanding a 30% cut in all———
That demand or the demand they actually put forward will come in the 2012 budget. That is where the battle you desire will take place. It is on the ground, the high ground, they have chosen. The outcome will not be certain. It will be protracted and very bloody.
Meanwhile, they let the secretary of the treasury sweat. They let him cower before the President whining about doom. Running out of money is a lot like the embargo cutting off shipping and resources to an enemy during war.
The war is being fought with the means at hand...... the money in the till and the next real budget. The battle is being engaged at the time and place of the House leaderships choosing.
Arm chair colonels would do well to relax and watch our generals engage the enemy
You are kidding right? the GOP will never be stronger than they are right now...they don’t want cuts.they want trillions in debt to pay off the special interests. HR 1 adds 900 billion to the debt this year alone (had it passed)...
We can't even see the tipping point in our rear view mirror.
“70% of this debt is being “purchased” by the FED”
How soon before it is 90%+?
I am buying gold, silver, copper, lead, food and looking for farmland.
LOL, that wasn’t difficult was it? Anyone who knows their history understands this. However, unless theres fundamental change in the electorate nothing is going to change in DC.
Yeah, but when the merrygoround continues down the same failing path the entire world economy is going to collapse. Anyone with simple math skills can see that. This is not even subject to interpretation. As a country we simply cannot continue to accumulate debt at the rate of $6 million/minute and expect the ride to continue on as if nothing is going to happen. It has to stop and stop now! Gubmint spending went up 25% in the past two years alone. The best the Republicans can muster is a 2% cut? (really a .5% cut thanks to baseline budgeting parlor tricks) I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night! Let's not forget that the single largest entitlement program since the (not so) Great Society was passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by a Republican POTUS! Medicare Part D is now $160 billion in the hole and heading deeper as the Boomers have begun retiring.
Somehow I'm supposed to believe the Republicans know something the rest of us don't? Yeah, we're FUBAR and the Republicans are just as responsible for the situation we find ourselves in as any Democrat! This is all fodder for the masses while career politicians try to cover their tracks......
Which works as well as drinking your own piss when you're thirsty.
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