It is no lie to say “The United States Treasury may very shortly not have enough money to pay what is owed!”
Each month our government spends about $100 billion more than it takes in. Our current cash balance is $200 billion.
Every day the Treasury reports a Daily Treasury Statement. The link to it is here:
fsapps.fiscal.treasury.gov/…
The Daily Treasury Statement shows, among other things, the amount of withdrawals for the day, the deposits for the day and most importantly the cash balance at the end of the day.
The Debt ceiling is $31.381 trillion. It has been reached. Until it was reached the Treasury could borrow,as needed, to keep cash in its balance. Since the debt ceiling has been reached, the Treasury has not been able to borrow any more and the Treasury is burning cash rapidly.
While the cash amount fluctuates up and down daily, looking at the balances on the start of each month you can clearly see the rate of cash burn is significant.
June 1, 2023 does look like the day when the cash balance will reach zero.
For whatever reason, the warnings I hear don’t sound that real or urgent, but when I see it on paper and what the money goes toward default looks very real and very scary.
As an interesting aside, I would like to point that this fact: It is now estimated that the amount of money our government will spend each year — just on interest — is $853 billion. See this link: fred.stlouisfed.org/…
Anyway, I’m gonna vote no chance of default in the poll...curious what everyone else thinks.