Debt? What debt? We are holding at $16,699,396,000,000

[shane77m]

(CNSNews.com) - The Treasury Department's Financial Management Service (FMS), which publishes both the federal government's official Daily Treasury Statement and its official Monthly Treasury Statement, is reporting that in July the federal government ran a deficit of $98 billion but that the federal government's debt remained exactly $16,699,396,000,000 for the entire month.

The FMS said that the deficit went up $98 billion ($97,594,000,000) in the Monthly Treasury Statment for July, which it released on Monday.

At the same time, the FMS said the debt stayed at exactly $16,699,396,000,000 in its Daily Treasury Statements, which are published every business day. The Daily Treasury Statements show the daily value of the federal government debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress.

At the static $16,699,396,000,000 level that the Treasury reported for every day of July, the debt was just $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,000,000 that was set in a law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama.

If Treasury's daily statements were to declare that the government had borrowed an additional net $98 billion to cover the $98 billion deficit the Treasury declared in its monthly statement for July, the Treasury would be conceding that the government had already surpassed the legal limit on the debt--and has been violating the law by continuing to borrowing additional money.

Instead, even as the Treasury was running up the $98-billion deficit it reported in the July Monthly Treasury Statement, every one of the 22 Daily Treasury Statements published for July said the Treasury had closed out the previous business day with exactly $16,699,396,000,000 in debt.

The Daily Treasury Statement for Aug. 12, released Tuesday afternoon, says the debt remained stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000 during the first 12 days of this month, too.

On May 17, the first day the Treasury reported that the debt had hit exactly $16,699,396,000,000--and was thus just $25 million below the legal limit--Treasury Secretary Lew sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner saying he was beginning to implement what he called "the standard set of extraordinary measures" to prevent the Treasury from exceeding the legal limit on the federal debt.

Since Lew sent that letter--announcing that he would use "extraordinary measures"--the debt has remained stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000 for 87 straight days.

That includes all 31 days in July when Lew's Treasury says it was running a $98 billion deficit.

When Lew stops using "extraordinary measures" to keep the debt at exactly $16,699,396,000,000, the government will have another debt-limit crisis.


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If this article is accurate then it appears the snow job continues. Maybe the debt clock is just broken.

[Madison320]

If this article is accurate then it appears the snow job continues. Maybe the debt clock is just broken.

They did the same thing when we hit the debt limit about 6 months ago. They freeze the debt with accounting tricks. As soon as they raise the debt limit you'll see the debt jump up a lot.

The only reason our deficits are slowing down a little is from all the revenue generated from the QE.

[jllundqu]

Drudged

[Acala]

Like a vain person that never gets older than 30.

[Zippyjuan]

Bookkeeping. Postponing bills until later.

[Acala]

Bookkeeping. Postponing bills until later.

People in the private sector who use the kind of "bookkeeping" the Federal government uses go to jail.

[devil21]

Bookkeeping. Postponing bills until later.

Is this related to your post here?

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...t-through-July

Pretty easy to keep the deficit "low" when the numbers are being fudged.

[shane77m]

People in the private sector who use the kind of "bookkeeping" the Federal government uses go to jail.

It is sad.

[GunnyFreedom]

Had this conversation with someone on FB a few weeks ago. The US Debt Clock continues to move up even if some reported figure somewhere does not.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[Neil Desmond]

So what's the deal? How's this actually possible? Can they simply put things on hold by pushing a pause button like it's a video game or something?

[devil21]

So what's the deal? How's this actually possible? Can they simply put things on hold by pushing a pause button like it's a video game or something?

As far as media dissemination is concerned, yes! They have to address the debt ceiling at some point. Then after some compromise is passed the debt will shoot up like 2tril overnight! They have to address it eventually. Don't they? No budget in years though. I guess it's at the "it's all good til it's not" phase. Bagholders unite!

[nobody's_hero]

If this article is accurate then it appears the snow job continues. Maybe the debt clock is just broken.

Maybe it works like the odometer in my old pickup truck. You wouldn't know if I've put 5,431 miles on it, or 105,431 miles on it, or 205,431 miles on it, so on and so on. After it hits 99,999 miles it just rolls over.

[shane77m]

At this point does it really matter what the debt is? It seems like someone worrying about a zit on their face when their nose is being eaten off by cancer.

[Barrex]

Ha ha. They did same thing here in Croatia... but since we got more than 2 parties and we are small country that "secret" didnt stayed hidden for very long.

There are millions of ways to do this.

[Right Wing]

http://www.usadebtclock.com/

[oyarde]

Maybe it works like the odometer in my old pickup truck. You wouldn't know if I've put 5,431 miles on it, or 105,431 miles on it, or 205,431 miles on it, so on and so on. After it hits 99,999 miles it just rolls over.

I just unscrewed the cable on my '57 @ 81,000, because I was certain my Dad was checking the odometer on school days and I feared this may interfere with my 120 mile road trips to fish , drink beer and all the other things that were more important than actually going to school

[GunnyFreedom]

Had this conversation with someone on FB a few weeks ago. The US Debt Clock continues to move up even if some reported figure somewhere does not.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

http://www.usadebtclock.com/

That's weird, mine is counting up, yours is way lower and counting down.

I don't think our debt is going down in any case. We'd have had to eliminate the deficit and run a surplus to be paying down the debt.

ETA - my link has the debt at $16.9 Trillion yours has the debt at $1.9 Billion

That's not even the deficit which mine has at $793.5 Billion.

I'm guessing the data feed for your link is broken somewhere...

ETAA -- something is weird at that link. I refresh and it shows the correct number for a few seconds, and then collapses to the $1.9 Bn figure. Maybe a script is off?

[puppetmaster]

That's weird, mine is counting up, yours is way lower and counting down.

I don't think our debt is going down in any case. We'd have had to eliminate the deficit and run a surplus to be paying down the debt.

ETA - my link has the debt at $16.9 Trillion yours has the debt at $1.9 Billion

That's not even the deficit which mine has at $793.5 Billion.

I'm guessing the data feed for your link is broken somewhere...

ETAA -- something is weird at that link. I refresh and it shows the correct number for a few seconds, and then collapses to the $1.9 Bn figure. Maybe a script is off?

maybe the smoke and mirrors are messing things up?

[GunnyFreedom]

maybe the smoke and mirrors are messing things up?

That sounds right.