Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meets with President Obama at the White House. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) - Of the $1,900,000,000,000.00 increase in federal borrowing authority approved by President Barack Obama and Congress last February, the federal government now has just $11.826 billion left, according to the U.S. Treasury. The other $1,888,174,000,000.00 has been borrowed and spent.
As of the close of business on Wednesday, the federal debt subject to the legal limit equaled $14,282,174,000,000.00. The debt limit--set in a law signed by President Obama on Feb. 12, 2010--is $14,294,000,000,000.00.
The $1,888,174,000,000.00 in new debt the government has accumulated just since Feb. 12, 2010, equals $16,064 for every household in the United States (based on the Census Bureau’s estimate of 117,538,000 households in the country).
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner on Monday saying that the Treasury would begin taking “extraordinary measures” on Friday to avoid hitting the debt ceiling.