The US government is running out of money to pay its bills. It is so close to reaching the statutory limit on debt at this point that US Treasury secretary Jack Lew has taken “extraordinary measures” to delay becoming delinquent on payments owed.
Republicans offered a deal today to temporarily raise the debt limit, but the saga has left the Treasury with just $32 billion in its operating accounts, less than is held by nine Standard & Poor’s 500 companies in cash and short-term investments. General Electric has nearly three times as much readily accessible cash as the US government right now.
Just six months ago, the Treasury had $151 billion to spend, following US annual tax collection for 2012. (Those receipts were unusually high as Americans tried to avert higher taxes in 2013 according to Nancy Vanden Houten a government and policy analyst at Stone McCarthy Research Associates.)