Treasury Debt $19,197,076,000,000 (updated 3/29/16)

The biggest eye opener about the chart should be the Republicans who claim to be fiscally conservative, when the actuality they're just like the blue party across the isle.  The motivation and concentration seems to be slightly different, however the results are the same.

As the lens is more focused or widened, it gets worse from all vantage points.

Since 1996 the Pentagon alone has can't account for $8.5 trillion.

http://personalliberty.com/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-5-trillion-taxpayer-dollars/

Quote :

A recent investigation has revealed that the Pentagon has failed to account for $8.5 trillion dollars of taxpayer money Congress has allocated toward the U.S. Department of Defense since 1996.

According to the report, out from Reuters, the Pentagon has routinely cooked its books by failing to supply a clear monthly account of the money spent for Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS).

Via the Reuters report:

Quote :

Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts.

Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Using the data they received, Woodford and her fellow DFAS accountants there set about preparing monthly reports to square the Navy’s books with the U.S. Treasury’s — a balancing-the-checkbook manoeuvre required of all the military services and other Pentagon agencies.

And every month, they encountered the same problem. Numbers were missing. Numbers were clearly wrong. Numbers came with no explanation of how the money had been spent or which congressional appropriation it came from. “A lot of times there were issues of numbers being inaccurate,” Woodford says. “We didn’t have the detail … for a lot of it.”

The data flooded in just two days before deadline. As the clock ticked down, Woodford says, staff were able to resolve a lot of the false entries through hurried calls and emails to Navy personnel, but many mystery numbers remained. For those, Woodford and her colleagues were told by superiors to take “unsubstantiated change actions” — in other words, enter false numbers, commonly called “plugs,” to make the Navy’s totals match the Treasury’s.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/accounting-fraud-is-business-as-usual-at-the-pentagon/

Quote :

Furthermore, Reuters found that disorganization in the Defense Logistics Agency, which is responsible for buying and storing weapons, ammunition and many other supplies, caused repeated expenditure on supplies it already possessed. The report uses an example from 2008, where the DLA had 15,000 “vehicular control arms” (part of the front suspension of a military Humvee) in stock. Although the quantity was equal to a 14-year supply, the agency reportedly bought 7,437 more of these parts between 2010 and 2012.

The Pentagon has not responded to the report, which comes as the second in a series titled “Unaccountable: The High Cost of the Pentagon’s bad bookkeeping”. After the release of the first report in July, Sen. Tom Carper, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said that he would examine the issue of Pentagon payroll problems in a hearing later this year.

This has been going on for decades, still continues today, through Republican and Democrat presidents and congress'.

New record 93,194,000 Americans not in labor force.  Unsure if this figure is inclusive of the entire population not working (children, seniors) or if it is actually working age adults 16 to 67.

April's unemployment is 5.4 %, a seven year low.  This doesn't factor in people who reached the end of unemployment assistance or who have quit looking for work.

joemac wrote:

April's unemployment is 5.4 %, a seven year low.

They LIE.......
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

Unemployment numbers don't look good? ..... No problem, the government just cooks the books. Shadowstats' numbers are, iirc, based on the metrics used for measuring unemployment in 1980 and are imho a far more accurate measure of unemployment and a scary one if you look at their numbers....

"The ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate for April 2015 is 23.0%."

Interesting chart as it has unemployment actually going up!

And stocks keep going higher, volatile swings but still and generally upward trend. When will reality set in? About the next election time for the headache of a recession to start again for a new president?

CNBC's Rick Santelli just ranted about Chicago's current dire situation. The state has many ridiculously expensive pension programs (fire, police, teachers, etc). The Illinois State Supreme court just ruled against Illinois' 2013 plan to reduce pension plan expenses. Illinois state has led the pack in underfunding state pensions, only 39% funded in 2013. It doesn't look good.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/05/illinois-supreme-court-finds-2013.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-underfunded-pension-plans-states

I was reading about that last night. Democratic run state for decades and I know now that a Republican is governor, it will be party politics so each side can try to claim they are fighting the right fight. This is why states need to have stronger rights vs federal, Illinois created the mess and so Illinois should dig itself out instead of a federal bailout program which is very possible. The cities and the state have been over promising for decades and its about to all come crumbling down.

San Diego or LA has a situation where 60+% of all tax revenue goes to pay for people or pensions. For decades they didn't fund them, now the bills come due. Deals in the backroom, under the cover of darkness in California have salaries and retirement structures that simply unsustainable. Where as a public sector employee earning in retirement 90% of their highest earned year while in the public sector. Thus a city employee gets full retirement after 20 years, say at age 50, then the cities have to fund them ($100k+ annually) for the rest of their lives. The result, American cities get no infrastructure, no assets, leading to deteriorating eventual death.

Compounding that the amount of debt municipalities have continued to float the ship by bonds (borrowing on future tax revenue). Well when the private sector can no longer support the communities appetite for tax revenue, they lay off, fire, outsource, or move. Tax revenues fall and the flimsy financial structure they operate under fails. Looking for a bailout and someone else to pay the bills, the federal government.

Treasury Daily Statement

Looks like we're still holding at X for 56 days . Wonder when this crisis hits the media again. It's not like it isn't in plain sight for anyone to see.

The State of New Jersey borrowed over 2 billion dollars from my pension system around 12 years ago. Now they went to court to try not to pay it back. The court stated they must pay, the State still refuses.

With the gridlock in Washington right now I am not even sure the federal govt would bail them out of such a large hole. I am SURE there will be plenty of people saying that they are owed a bailout without giving anything up. This will get very interesting very soon I suspect.

If the federal government will give away $61 billion to New York and New Jersey for Sandy relief, that gets handed out to those connected Millions were granted by FEMA to Bastrop, TX for wildfire relief, Billions allocated to Moore Oklahoma for tornado destruction relief. This is a recently new phenomenon that the federal government hands out cash for natural disasters. Little if any of the assistance makes it to the affected citizens. The cash goes to and gets absorbed by companies that are closely connected to government, favors, political leverage, paybacks, support. There's hundreds of instances and articles that are published by the media, the public couldn't care less.

Federal government has no issue giving out the cash, it's the accounting for what was delivered that never happens. This is by design, because the American people don't pay attention, don't care and are willfully uninformed.

They hand out cash and my flood insurance goes up every time. 10 years ago I didn't need flood insurance, then Katrina hit and all of a sudden we had to get a policy due to new mapping. During Hurricane Sandy, the ocean never reached my property but again they raised the premium. Our neighborhood got together and had a survey off our area done. The Surveyor send a report to FEMA stating elevations that eliminated us from the guide lines of needing flood insurance. FEMA said too bad, unless you house is paid off, you have to have the insurance. The 100 year flood came and went while we stayed dry and FEMA doesn't care.  A FEMA map maker in Fla. makes the decision from his desk.

Sounds eerily similar to the ACA legislation that government rammed through. You pay for benefits you won't ever use, financial benefits here go to the insurance companies, who got millions of new customers mandated by government.

Wait til open enrollment periods this year when the majority of company plans roll out 2016 coverage which has to conform to ACA. Employees are going to have some eye's open on the costs. I can't see many companies simply absorbing the cost, unless they pass the additional overhead into their products and services, of which the consumer, us again pays.

Make no mistake we pay for it through a myriad of ways. Increased contribution portion through employer plans, through our federal taxes, through consumer products and services.

FEMA is licking their chops on new customer base in Texas and Oklahoma with all the rain and flooding that's occurred recently. Its a far gone conclusion that declaration of flood plains will expand.

TheQuig wrote:

They hand out cash and my flood insurance goes up every time. 10 years ago I didn't need flood insurance, then Katrina hit and all of a sudden we had to get a policy due to new mapping. During Hurricane Sandy, the ocean never reached my property but again they raised the premium. Our neighborhood got together and had a survey off our area done. The Surveyor send a report to FEMA stating elevations that eliminated us from the guide lines of needing flood insurance. FEMA said too bad, unless you house is paid off, you have to have the insurance. The 100 year flood came and went while we stayed dry and FEMA doesn't care.  A FEMA map maker in Fla. makes the decision from his desk.

That stinks of insurance industry lobbying the government.

This year I noticed our insurance was going up 11% and last year it went up 8%. I called to vent and they had all sort of excuses. The truth is, insurance companies press all customers these days in an effort to subsidize costs. Even though I've been with the same company for 8 years, I let them know I'd be playing the annual insurance shopping game. They blinked and dramatically lowered our rates but I know it will be the same BS next year. Fortunately we aren't required to carry flood insurance yet. But it wouldn't surprize me if they began a new company policy even here in the desert.

Our favorite rhino Christie, likes the concessions at MetLife stadium $82k worth. He must have been stockpiling burgers and dogs. Including MetLife box the total outlay over five years was a mere $300k. Thanks tax payers.

Chris Christie Spent $82k On Concessions At NFL Games

On the accounting side. Yea you guessed it, no receipts.

But those hot dogs at Met Life are worth it. I can't afford the price of a ticket to that place.

Record tax revenue for first 7 months of FY2015 of $1.89 trillion.  Still ran a deficit of $282 billion.  

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/189t-tax-revenue-fy15-hit-record-through-april-govt-runs-282b-deficit

Debt ceiling still at 18,112,975,000,000 for 60 days now. Jack Lew is still operating under "extraordinary measures" taking money from pensions, and not making other payments to keep the ship afloat.  Robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Not a word about it from any media.  

This self induced crisis will all of a sudden pop up one day, like it's a surprise.  Then we'll get to watch those claimed and principled fiduciary responsible elected representatives raise the ceiling and spend some more.

They are currently working on selling whats left of us in the name of Free Trade. They'll get around to raising this artificial limit as soon as they divvy up whats on their plates now.

15 Weeks: Treasury Says Debt Has Been Frozen at $18,112,975,000,000

Quote :

The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress closed Friday, June 26, at $18,112,975,000,000, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement, which was published at 4:00 p.m. on Monday.

That, according to the Treasury's statements, makes 15 straight weeks that the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000.

$18,112,975,000,000 is about $25 million below the current legal debt limit of $18,113,000,080,959.35.

The Daily Treasury Statement for March 13 was the first to show the federal debt subject to the limit closing the day at $18,112,975,000,000. Every Daily Treasury Statement since then has reported the same thing: the debt closing the day at $18,112,975,000,000.

Every Daily Treasury Statement since Monday, March 16, has reported the debt beginning and ending each day at $18,112,975,000,000.

Fast approaching is August 14th, which will be 150 days the the debt limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000. Still not a whimper from anyone in DC.

We've now eclipsed 150 days. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/150-days-treasury-says-debt-has-been-frozen-18112975000000

Congratulations America!  

Hard to read through the vagueness of what actually they are stealing from.  It would appear government employees that pay into Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) 8% of paychecks? are getting the screws.  Using withholding from their checks to keep the government afloat.  And that's just one measure we can sort of put together.  Who knows what else they're stealing, or simply making up numbers.

Much the same scheme in which SS and Medicare withholding from paychecks goes into the general fund, then the government states "we've got to do something about entitlements".  Hey that's fine, get rid of the entirety of both programs, including the paycheck withholdings.  They won't do the latter.  As this is a tax revenue cash cow, especially when considering the totality of the employee and employer contributions.

That is exactly what has happened to my state pension funds. The government literally borrowed billions of dollars to pay for other budgets and has now gone to court refusing to pay it back. The State Supreme Court ordered it be payed back but the governor says you can't pay if there are no funds to pay. So in other words screw the people that paid in and make them look like the bad guys for wanting a pension they paid a lot of money into. I was paying $80 a week when I left work and applied for my pension as I was afraid there would be no pension at all if I waited 3 more years.

Yep same playbook, those steadfast conservatives really getting after downsizing our government and getting a handle on the countries debt.

Mind you Republican house and senate. What's the solution here boys? We put you into office so we could make the hard choices, put us on a road to prosperity. You boys told us that you would. Where's the results? Crickets......

Much the same the continued theft of the American citizenry continues.

ISIS rides around on horses, the US flies around in $1.4 trillion dollar F-35's that are barely operational and marginally if any out perform the last generation of fighters they were support to be superior too many times over.

ISIS seems to be able to operate the business of war with a much greater efficiency than the US and isn't $18 trillion in debt and begging another borrower.

You don't hear about how the federal government is stealing from it's own employees to keep the government functioning. Why? Certainly news worthy. Federal employees would certainly have interest. Even private sector might have some interest to understand the situation, as it points to how dire our circumstances really are. But no lets spend air time talking about the name for the Kardashians (sp?) rabbit.

I think since Viet Nam the government has never figured out a way to beat a rag tag army. We can win on the large battle fields, but never seem to beat the insurgents. They have different mindsets about dying for their God and I don't know if we can change that. I think only their own people can change that and I don't think they have the heart to do it.

As for the Kardashians, I don't think I would know one if I walked into them on the street. I have never seen the show, don't care what they do. There are too many things going on in the world to pay attention to that crap.

We've eclipsed 175 days. Vague through Lew indicates they will continue doing such through October 30th. Nothing stated what happens on October 31st.

POTUS said if he doesn't get his spending increases then he will veto a spending bill. Problem is he will likely get it bc the RINO Rep leadership wants spending increases as bad as he does. I hope we get another govt shutdown. It suck for the workers but it seems to be the only way to get people to take any notice of our horrible fiscal health. Are we just going to go on forever running a deficit every year(or try to anyway, eventually we would stop being able to borrow)?

The "government shutdown" last go around indicated that 87% of all government functions were still in operation. Or was it 83%? Its only the stuff you see, they want to make it as painful as possible. Shutting down national parks. Blocking access to war memorials. Another amazing feat of government, put effort and resources out to stop people from walking through a memorial area, fences security guards.

Only in government, where a shutdown, isn't a shutdown.

I'm curious of the plan past October 31st. They'll start the whole propaganda show, our military isn't going to get paid, bla bla blah. Maybe they should have curtailed something anything before they maxed out 20 credit cards. A real discussion, which won't happen, should be an evaluation of how much government we actually need and can afford. But that would require honesty and integrity, something our country no longer possesses.

What a mess they've created. Yet the same people that got us in this mess are going to get us out from under the mess. Yea right.

Government shut down propaganda is old people will die because they can't get the SS check and the young will starve in school. Oceans will rise, Hurricanes will be bigger, and the Cubs will still suck.

And the only people out there telling the people the truth(mostly) and what needs to happen is a loud mouth with no class Trump and Cruz who looks like a used car salesman.

Tells you all you need to know about our current crop of politicians if those 2 are the cream of the crop, doesn't it?