The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday announced the first in a possible series of emergency steps to push back the day when the government will exceed its legal borrowing authority as imposed by the U.S. Congress.

The Treasury said on Dec. 28 it would suspend issuance of State and Local Government Series securities, known as “slugs”, which are special low-interest Treasury securities offered to state and local governments to temporarily invest proceeds from municipal bond sales. …

The Treasury said it will also begin other measures, such as suspending certain retirement investments, which together will raise $200 billion.

The Treasury said the debt ceiling is set to be reached on Dec. 31, but analysts believe extraordinary measures can stave that date off into February.

Which means what? The Christian Post ran this story in August 2011, the last time the feds bumped up against the debt limit:

Jay Powell, who served as Under Secretary of the Treasury under George H. W. Bush and is a Visiting Scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, made this point in an interview on The Newshour.

“There’s always going to be enough money to pay the interest on the debt, and it’s very unlikely that there will be an actual debt default,” said Powell. …

While Tea Party Republicans are correct when they say that there will be enough revenue to avoid default and pay Social Security benefits, they are incorrect to suggest that the current debt ceiling can be maintained without major disruptions. Failure to increase the debt ceiling will, as Powell points out, “have significant effects on our economy and that will ripple throughout the global economy as well.”

Republicans point out often in this debate that the debt ceiling increase was requested by President Obama. This is true, but it was requested by President Obama so that he can carry out Congress’ spending orders.

In the Constitution, Congress is given authority over the budget. The spending has already been authorized by Congress, and the President is required to carry out Congress’ spending orders. Some of those spending orders were passed by Democratic led Congresses, some were passed by Republican led Congresses.

The debt ceiling itself is odd in one sense – Congress already authorized the spending, then it needs to authorize the borrowing necessary for the spending it already authorized. Most nations do not have a debt ceiling.

Bloomberg news created an interactive tool, based upon the Bipartisan Policy Center’s calculations, where you can play the role of Treasury Secretary by prioritizing which payments should be made and which should not be made.

At the time, the U.S. had $14.5 trillion in federal government debt. Today, the federal debt is over $16 trillion. And yet voters kept the incumbent in the White House.