The United States Debt Passes the Established Debt Ceiling of $14.2 Trillion

Are we in default like Timothy Geithner claimed? Not yet, but the US continued spending money despite breaking the debt ceiling. That's right, the United States government surpassed the debt ceiling faster than they predicted, and since we are over the debt ceiling, Obama's Easter egg hut should be canceled since there is no money to fund it. That's not how things work in Washington. A debt ceiling wasn't going to stop Democrats or Republicans from spending more money.

Tyler Durdin writes:

A quick look at today's just released total debt to the penny from the Treasury may crimp the artificial smile of even such die hard administration sycophants as Moodys. Why: because the total debt, as we predicted when we observed last week's 30 Year auction, is now at $14,305,336,580,992.11. This is a problem because as anyone who rails against the broken US fiscal apparatus should be able to tell you, the debt ceiling is $14.294 trillion. In other words we have now officially breached the debt ceiling by $11 billion. So why has the US not filed a notice of default yet? Because the actual debt that matters for legal purposes is the debt "subject to the limit", which is $52 billion less than the total debt primarily due to $10 billion held at the Federal Financing Bank, and $41 billion in unamortized discount: a number which fluctuates in time depending on how much over or under par bonds are issued, but which ultimately will be zero at maturity of all debt (haha). In other words, as of today, the US Treasury has dry powder for just another $41 billion in issuance, or just over your average 5 Year auction.

Be sure to thank John Boehner for delivering those spending cuts. Had he been serious about cutting spending, he may have avoided the breach. It was possible, but Boehner and the Republicans, including Billy Long who voted to continue federal funding of NASCAR teams, weren't serious about cutting spending.