Treasury Forced to Issue $1T in New Debt in First 6 Weeks of FY14
November 18, 2013 - 5:52 PM
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By Terence P. Jeffrey
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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and President Barack Obama (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) -
Between Oct. 1, 2013, the first day of fiscal 2014, and Nov. 14—which was less than a month after Congress agreed to temporarily suspend the legal limit on the federal debt—the Treasury was forced to issue more than $1 trillion in new debt.During that time, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, the Treasury issued $1,014,215,000,000 in new bills, notes, bonds and other securities.
The government needed this $1,014,215,000,000 to cover government obligations and expenses that exceeded the $255,080,000,000 it raked in through tax revenues during the same six-week period.
Where did that combined $1,014,215,000,000 in newly borrowed money and $255,080,000,000 in new tax revenues go?
The lion’s share went to payoff maturing securities the Treasury had sold before and had now come due.In total, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, the Treasury needed to redeem $879,734,000,000 in maturing debt during the first six weeks of the fiscal 2014.
After that, the government’s biggest expenses were $98.853 billion in Social Security benefits, $77.704 billion in Medicare expenses, $35.304 billion to Defense Department vendors, $34.623 billion for Medicaid, $20.537 billion for the salaries for federal workers (who have now been compensated for the time they missed during the partial shutdown), $20.155 billion for the Department of Education, $13.060 billion for the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (which includes the food stamp program), $11.152 billion in Health and Human Services Department grants, $10.648 billion for Housing and Urban Development Department programs, and $9.172 billion to buy insurance for federal employees over and above the $20.537 billion they were paid in salaries.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/treasury-forced-issue-1t-new-debt-first-6-weeks-fy14
