I’ve read a few complaints today that the Total Public Debt Outstanding is $12,129,073,186,050.29. That would be larger than the $12,104,000,000,000 allowed by law. This is true, but not all debt is subject to the regulatory limit. You can find this broken down on a daily basis here. Or, look at today’s report here. Total public debt subject to the regulatory limit is $11,853,434,000,000. See? Everything is right in the world.

And just to head off the argument that it is arbitrary to have some debt not subject to the limit, I have to point out that the limit itself is equally arbitrary, and the classification scheme to determine what is and is not subject to the limit is determined by the same legislators who determined the limit in the first place. So, it may be arbitrary, but at least it’s consistent.

In other news, it looks like the jobs bill (which contains the increase to the debt ceiling and the fixed unemployment benefits extension) will not be voted on by the Senate until after the new year. I’m getting that information from Calculated Risk. I’m left wondering if there will be negative consequences to having approximately three million people go a week without unemployment benefits. I’m predicting riots, subject to cancellation due to weather (seriously, imagine if this happened during a particularly hot summer).

Update

Via jasencomstock:

I think they might vote on that Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Reid informed the Senate they would be working until they clean their plate.

This would be extremely dull compared to the complete collapse of the US. I was going to go to Mexico for a week, just in case.