“…timely action to increase the debt limit in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens.”-Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, will now use government employee retirement money to pay U.S. government debts.  He pointed out that he’s not the first Treasury Secretary to do so.

Even with using retirement money, it’s estimated the government will run out of debt payment options within 11 weeks.  The Federal government has spent its way to the legal debt limit of $14.3 trillion.

What Geithner, and Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve (a private bank), want is for Congress to raise the debt limit.  But, that would only mean that our elected officials could get us even deeper in the hole.

The problem is that our Federal government is running solely on loans.  Geithner wants to be able to keep borrowing money.  There is a fear that no matter how drastic government spending cuts are, they might not be enough.   This is a really really really bad sign.

The Treasury Department has already stopped issuing state and local governments special securities to manage their debts.  Where does that leave them?

History shows that Congress loves to raise its debt limit, so it can spend more of YOUR money, and it’s partly the cause of our current situation.  Some members of Congress say it’s time to pay the piper.