Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Treasury, wants the public (and Senator Reid) to know that the U.S. is essentially out of money and needs a debt limit increase.
This is essentially the equivalent of you asking your credit card company for a credit limit increase. Without it (as the letter points out), we increase our risk of default on debt, thus lowering our country's debt rating, leading to a multitude of additional problems.
Geithner's Letter to Harry ReidTime for my take: Wait...so spending with reckless abandon and increasing unemployment benefits and other social programs hasn't helped prevent our country from hitting our debt cap? hmmm....who would have ever guessed it?
I'm sure after a letter like this we will probably just vote to cut some spending right? No? We are actually just asking for permission to spend more money (that we don't have). I wonder what taught Americans that credit card debt isn't such a bad thing? It's ok I'm sure we'll just dip into Social Security, it seems to always be the answer.
Maybe we would be a little further from the debt limit if everyone (
including Geithner) paid their share of taxes??