US NATIONAL DEBT LIMIT TO BE RAISED AGAIN?

What follows is part of what [http://thepete.com/us-government-to-raise-ceiling-on-borrowing-from-the-fed/|I wrote waaay back in February of 2003] :

You think you’re having credit problems? Well, believe it or not, the money the government gets does NOT come from taxes - most (if not all) of the money the USGov gets from tax payers goes to pay off the national debt. Which, according to [http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/|this website], currently resides well past the six trillion dollar mark. Just to put that in perspective, according to this site the US population is approaching 300 million people. Do the math and you’ll see that the USG is so deep in debt if every SINGLE human who lives in America today (including the poor and the infants) gave $20,000 to the USG, they STILL wouldn’t have enough money to pay of the debt.

[http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/|That same website], by the way, now has the ND up to over $8 trillion. How do you spend that much? Have a Bush in the White House (I only wish I was referring to greenery in the Rose Garden instead of a George Bush). Here's more from my post two years ago:

The other important thing to note is that the National Debt goes up roughly a billion dollars a day because the USG keeps borrowing.

So, what are they doing raising their limit on how much they can borrow? Good question. While Bill Clinton actually felt it was a good idea to just shut down the USG for a very limited amount of time back in the mid-90s, the present government knows it’s in no position to pull something like that. (It makes you wonder why Al Qaeda didn’t attack us back then…) So, as they have done in the past, the USG will move to raise the ceiling on borrowing limits. According to this article at the New York Times this raising of the limit will be the second time in less than a year.

This is important because we’re in a time of war, the war hasn’t begun yet, but it might has well have. The USGov is spending millions every day mobilizing troops, getting them ready for the Iraq Attack. Just running the government costs a lot of money. Oh and once the war begins, it is said that it will cost billions per day. This probably won’t be the last time the USG votes to raise borrowing limits in the coming months.

Ha, or years--[http://thepete.com/bush-ups-his-credit-limit-to-8-trillion/|I wrote this in November of 2004] :

We live in a world where we are all stuck with the credit limits our banks decide to stick us with. While we can play games and jump through hoops to get that limit raised, all Bush 43 has to do is pass a law and BANG–he gets to borrow $800 billion more than he was previously able to. Granted, he’s not exactly out there buying DVRs, Porches and Playstation 2s, he’s spending the money on government things–all right, war. That is most of what the USGov spends its money on–”defense.” Because, there are, like, a lot of things to defend the US from. Like, ummmm… stuff. Terrorists, even though they’ve only killed around a few thousand of us, it is Al Qaeda who is considered the new Soviet Union.

So borrow, borrow, borrow does Bush, setting the example for a divided country. Debt is ok! Even if you have no way of possibly EVER paying that money back!In case you’re hungry for some “hard” news instead of my commentary, here’s a clip from [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6867307&src=rss/topNews|an uncredited article] from Reuters.com:

President Bush will sign into law by Monday a measure authorizing an $800 billion increase in the credit limit of the United States, the White House said.

In a statement issued late on Thursday after Congress gave its final approval to increase the limit to a new $8.184 trillion ceiling, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the legislation “was important to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

Ah, yes--the "faith and credit" of the United States. Like the USG gives a shit?

Well, remember how I mentioned above that the ND had gotten up to over $8 trillion? Yeah, well, as the article I quoted in 2004 said, the limit is $8.184 trillion. Check out the clip below I grabbed from [http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/29/news/economy/debt.reut/index.htm|an article] at Money.CNN.Com (ironically also uncredited and from Reuters.com) that I found thanks to [http://www.livejournal.com/community/peak_oil/257572.html?view=1635876|this post] in [http://www.livejournal.com/community/peak_oil|the Peak Oil community] at LiveJournal.Com:

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow warned lawmakers Thursday that a legally set limit on the government's ability to borrow will be hit in mid-February and urged Congress to raise it quickly.

"The administration now projects that the statutory debt limit, currently $8.184 trillion, will be reached in mid-February 2006," Snow said in a letter to 21 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

He urged quick action to raise it to preserve the government's ability to borrow in global capital markets at the lowest rates possible.

"A failure to increase the debt limit in a timely manner would threaten this unique and important position," Snow said.

So, there ya have it. Well, maybe you don't... There are a couple of links provided by LJ user [http://www.livejournal.com/users/mjmj/|mjmj] that each tell us a bit more about the debt.

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdhisto4.htm

The above link shows you the annual ND from 1950 to 2005. Notice how the big jumps in the ND occur during Republican administrations. During the Reagan/Bush years, the ND was vaulted from $930 billion to $2.6 trillion--that's a $1.5 trillion climb. From '76 to '80, Carter only nudged it $300 billion, or so.

Of course, when the senior Bush became Prez in 1988, his four years in office would see almost another $1.5 trillion jump from the $2.6 trillion Reagan left him with to the $4 trillion he'd leave Clinton. By the time Clinton handed the ND to the (very) junior Bush, it had only gotten to a bit less than $5.7 trillion. That's a $1.7 trillion jump in eight years. Sure, Clinton was no penny pincher, but he spent just slightly more in 8 years than the elder Bush did in four. Remember inflation, too--but we'll get to inflation later.

Let's now look at how the junior Bush has handled things. From the $5.6 Clinton left him with, Bush, between 2000 and 2004, upped the ND to $7.3 trillion. That works out to a $1.7 trillion jump--the same amount Clinton hiked it to in 8 years.

Neat how inflation occurs and practically demands that the USG borrows more money than it did in earlier years. Still, the wild hikes seen under Republican administrations are not explained solely by inflation.

Here's the second link [http://www.livejournal.com/users/mjmj/|mjmj] posted in [http://www.livejournal.com/community/peak_oil/257572.html?view=1635876|that original LJ Peak Oil thread] :

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm

That link sends you to a page that covers the interest part of the the ND that we owe. Yep--with debt comes interest payments. Ours is up to $352 billion.

I'll have to do another post that covers my confusion regarding who all this money is owed to. In the meantime I'll end this post by pointing out that I blogged about the USG upping it's credit limit in 2003, 2004 and now again at the tail end of 2005. Why do I have the feeling I'll be blogging about it more in 2006?

OH yeah... Bush is in office until January of 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!