Raising The $7.8 Trillion Debt Roof
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in EconomyThat’s what Treasury Secretary John Snow wants to do. But first, he’s taking money from the civil services pension fund to make sure we don’t hit that ceiling before Congress raises it.
From Wash Post:
The Treasury Department has started drawing from the civil service pension fund to avoid hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit. The move to tap the pension fund follows last month’s decision to suspend investments in a retirement savings plan held by government employees.In a letter to Congress this week, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said he would rely on the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund to avoid bumping up against the statutory debt limit. He said the Treasury is suspending investments and will redeem a portion of the money credited to the fund.
Once Congress raises the debt limit, the Treasury will “restore all due interest and principal” to the pension fund as soon as possible, Snow said. He made a similar promise when the Treasury announced that reinvestment of some assets in the Thrift Savings Plan’s government securities fund, or G Fund, had been suspended.
Does this concern anybody else? Any the supply siders out there…are we really okay with this debt celing being raised again and again to pay for tax cuts and confusing entitlement programs?
Thoughts welcome and appreciated.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 8th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Will it do any good if In say I am concerned? Is anyone listening?
March 8th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
There should be no such thing as a debt ceiling. Politicians are decieving you by valuing our national debt in raw dollar values without putting into perspective, by comparing the debt to GDP or tax receipts. I suggest to anyone interested or confused by this subject to read this:
http://www.optimist123.com/optimist/2006/03/two_curves_scre.html#trackback
If I told you I was an African-American High school drop-out from the projects of detroit, and I just made a 20,000$ purchase on my credit card, you would call me a fool right? Oops, I forgot to tell you I just got drafted in the 1st round by the New York Knicks.
March 8th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I’m very concerned. We better hope that: 1) Bush does a little (preferably no more) damage during the rest of his term – doesn’t it seem to be going by REALLY slowly by the way? and 2) whomever we elect in 2008 will be able to at least BEGIN to get us back on track fiscally.
March 8th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Heh…yeah. Apparently everybody but Bush and Snow.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Tell me, is it a tradition or something that the employee’s pension funds are raided just before the ship sinks? Thinking here of the likes of Enron etc… Seems to be a pattern?
March 22nd, 2006 at 6:46 pm
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April 5th, 2006 at 11:16 am
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April 5th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
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