ZeroHedge.com reports X date is approaching, that is “the day past which the US government will no longer be able to rely on ‘extraordinary measures’ to delay the day of reckoning, and will be unable to pay all its bills without recourse to additional debt. It is not the day when the US defaults, at least not defaults on its debt. It will begin ‘defaulting’ on various financial obligations, such as not paying due bills on time and in full, but since this is something Europe’s periphery has been doing for years, it is hardly catastrophic.”
This may come as a surprise to those who still believe the Republican wing of the Republicratic Duopoly supports fiscal responsibility; in mid-January former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan told reporters that the GOP would agree to a short-term increase in the debt-ceiling. ZeroHedge also reports, “the US hit its debt ceiling on December 31, and has since been utilizing some $200 billion in Extraordinary Measure to stave off X Date” which is expected to come sometime between Feb. 15 and March 1.
What does this actually mean? The Treasury has approximately $201 billion in “Extraordinary Measures” available to spend. Once the $201 billion, consisting primarily of plundering the government retirement G-fund, runs out, the Bipartisan Policy Center says, “There is no precedent; all other debt limit impasses have been resolved without reaching the X Date.” Which means, the Treasury has never failed during a debt limit impasse to meet a payment obligation, so no one really knows what will happen if the X Date is reached.
The Bipartisan Policy Center also reports, “Treasury will not attempt to ‘firesale’ assets during a crisis.” A firesale would be great! Imagine how much better run the various national parks would be if they were operated by private organizations. Just imagine visiting Yellowstone or Yosemite Park if they were being operated by the Audubon Society with voluntary funding. In total, the federal government owns approximately 635 million acres of land. If the land were to sale for as little as $10,000 per acre, the federal government would bring in $6.35 TRILLION for the land! Of course, there are many more ways the federal government could raise revenue or cut spending that do not involve threats of violence, unfortunately they’re not interested in peaceful solutions.