One of the astonishing things about the teajadi ambivalence over raising the debt limit is their contention that *not* raising the debt limit is not that big of a deal. Especially from the *personal responsibility* crowd who would be quick to condemn the kind of folks who overextend themselves and then decide to not pay their bills. But it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the Welfare Queen DNA is sourced in today’s GOP.
If you are curious as to what America’s finances will look like if we don’t raise the debt limit, just take a look at this great tool from Bloomberg. It is based upon an debt limit analysis made by the Bipartisan Policy Center (the meat of this is in the pdf for the wonks among us):
The U.S. government, whose legal authority to borrow money expires on or about Aug. 2, expects to take in $172.4 billion next month — enough to cover little more than half of its bills due then, according to a study for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a research organization.
The U.S. may not have to default on outstanding debts or withhold interest payments for that month; it may be able to cover $29 billion in anticipated interest due on Treasury securities with its cash receipts.
After that, the choices become more difficult. The accompanying shows the bills coming due and enables the user to pick which ones to pay with the funds available.
Jay Powell, undersecretary of the Treasury for Finance under President George H.W. Bush, calculated for the policy center that $306.7 billion in bills will come due after Aug. 2. They include Social Security benefits, defense vendor payments and military active duty pay, along with federal pay for every department and agency, in addition to the interest payments.
Certainly, the country is still getting revenues from ongoing tax collections and collections of other fees. But those collections do not cover our obligations. So then the Treasury starts prioritizing who gets paid. Go over the Bloomberg and work out your own prioritization for making the obligation outlays match the revenues collected.
I suspect that the GOP has no idea how big the government is that they keep railing against. Because I suspect their cavalier attitude is based in the idea that most of government is about paying for poor people. What I want someone who thinks that not paying the bills is No Big Deal to tell me is how long you think this government will not be paying these private sector companies heavily involved in doing so much government work:
Lockheed Martin
Northrup Grumman
Boeing
Raytheon
SAIC
General Dynamics
KBR
L-3 Communications
Booz Allen
Computer Sciences Corp