U.S. debt tops $16 trillion, closes in on $16.4 trillion debt ceiling

[Casino67]

Edmonton Journal:

 

U.S. government debt has topped the $16 trillion US level for the first time, edging inexorably closer to the government’s current $16.4 trillion borrowing limit.

 

The latest data, released Friday by the U.S. Treasury Department, suggests the U.S. is likely to reach its federal debt ceiling by the end of 2012.

The U.S. government is expected to run a deficit of between $1.1 trillion and $1.2 trillion for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

 

“The government is currently running an average monthly deficit of $100 billion and is likely to hit the debt ceiling sometime in late December,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

 

“The Treasury Department then can take emergency steps for several months to prevent the government from missing payments. Once the government hits the debt ceiling, it can no longer borrow money in excess of the statutory limit.”

 

The last time the U.S. reached its debt ceiling, in the summer of 2011, politicians in Washington managed to pass legislation to boost the limit by $2.1 trillion, just one day before the U.S. government risked defaulting on its debt.

 

//End//

Lame duck fight in the works. At some point this has to end.