U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants to take the country even deeper into debt.
In a letter to U.S. lawmakers on Friday, Geithner urged Congress to raise the legal limit on the nation’s credit card.
The amount the government may borrow is currently limited by law to $12.1 trillion, a cap that has been raised several times since the nation slipped into recession in December 2007. But Geithner says that it is "critically important" that Congress raise the country’s credit limit in the next two months as the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October.
Geithner didn’t request a specific increase in the letter. But according to a report in the Washington Post, Treasury officials are expected to ask Congress to raise the debt cap to $13 trillion.
"It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations," Mr. Geithner said.
According to brillig.com, the U.S. national public debt is already $11.675 trillion and increases by $3.91 billion per day.
Meanwhile, the U.S. deficit is on track to exceed $1.8 trillion, a postwar record compared with the size of the overall economy. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the policies laid out in Obama’s first budget would require an additional $9 trillion in borrowing over the next decade.
The massive size of this debt spells disaster for the long-term value of the US dollar. As a result, we continue to be extremely bullish on gold and silver.
Luke Burgess
Managing Editor, Gold World
