Whenever They Run Out of Money, Politicians Claim It'll Cause the Most Popular Programs (Teachers, Police, Fire) to not Get Paid

From Thomas Sewell

If all the administration does is pay debt interest and make already committed payments and pay salaries without making new purchases/commitments for payment, then they can stay under the debt ceiling indefinitely. All of that committed spending doesn't add up to the tax receipts and other income the federal government has coming in. What's already contracted with individuals and companies is covered. New spending is what would have to go. If the federal government starting selling their accumulated gold, that would give them a $200,000,000,000 cushion to work with. If they started selling federal land that's not currently in use for a park/military base/etc... they could raise another few trillion or so. At the very minimum, the department of the Interior could stop blocking oil and gas leases that bring in revenue and make a "mint" from that. Lots of options out there for additional revenue besides taxes.


Thomas Sewell is a little more partisan strident than I am. I think that almost all politicians act in this way. Considering the incentives that politicians face they act logically.  If they took higher moral ground they would greatly lower their chances of getting elected.

If we could unbundle Government programs it might help but we can't.