It’s a law (buried somewhere in DC) that sets a limit to how much the US Treasury can borrow. Lately US taxes have been high enough to pay 60% of federal spending. The Treasury borrows the other 40% to pay the rest of the bills. Now that we have hit the debt limit, and there is a good chance the Republicans will refuse to raise it, the Treasury is limited to selling off various assets. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said this will keep paying the federal government’s bills until June of this year.
Last time this happened, maybe ten years ago, the government shut all the national parks and laid off all the “non essential” government workers. This went on for some months. It didn’t bother me. My mail still got delivered, Air Traffic Control kept the airlines flying, I wasn’t expecting an income tax refund so putting the IRS on furlough was OK by me, and Cannon Mountain is a state run park, not federal.
This time maybe we could do some belt tightening to keep the federal deficit down. Like laying off those “non essential” bureaucrats for good. Cut appropriations for the FBI, CPSC, FAA, CIA, FEC and others in half. Look at military spending. See what we can do to end “gold plating” of weapons systems, and improve the ratio of “tooth to tail” of all branches. And Congress critters and their staffs don’t get paid until the budget is balanced somehow, more layoffs or more borrowing or something.
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