US National Debt - teetering on the edge

Details of the US National Debt are available at the Bureau of Public Debt as at 31.1.2006

Total Debt Outstanding $ 8.196 Trillion
Statutory Debt Limit $ 8.184 Trillion

Those of you with some elementary knowledge of the complex field of arithmetic may have noticed that the first figure - what the US Government owes, exceeds the limit Congress has allowed for the Government to borrow.

Any body out there can explain ? Last time this happened the Government sort of "borrowed" from the pension funds for government employees. Surely Congress have got to open the piggy bank, get out the paper and printing ink and print some more Treasury Bonds ?

Well, Reuters noticed this on Friday that the U.S. government has moved to within $25 million of its $8.184 trillion debt ceiling.

The Treasury said its total public debt subject to the statutory debt limit rose $10.03 billion on Thursday to $8,183,975,000,000.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has urged Congress to raise the debt limit, has said stop-gap measures could keep the government from defaulting on its financial obligations until mid-March.

On Thursday, the Treasury said it would dip into a federal pension system fund by curbing daily reinvestments of the fund's assets in order to stay below the debt limit.

Since writing the above Gov Exec has a piece explaining how the Government Employees Pension funds are juggled by the Tresury prestdigitators to "balance" the books. SFX "Buddy can you spare a Dime ?"

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME !