govt shutdown looms

[Danzig]

How often do we hit the debt ceiling?

A lot. Since 1944, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 94 times: 54 times by Republicans, 40 by Democrats. In fact, we technically hit the debt ceiling on May 19 of this year.

Wait. We already hit the debt ceiling?! Why hasn't everything gone horribly wrong?

Because the Treasury Department has been using what it calls "extraordinary measures" to prevent us from actually breaching the debt ceiling. Our debt has sat at about $25 million below the $16,699,421,000,000 limit, as the Treasury has performed various actions such as delaying new investments into employee retirement funds to keep us under the debt ceiling. However, the Treasury department cannot keep doing so forever. Today, Secretary Jack Lew announced that we will officially breach the debt ceiling on October 17.