As the time draws near, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has narrowed down an exact date for default while also projecting that the treasury will have less cash on hand than previously predicted.
Treasury now estimates that extraordinary measures will be exhausted no later than October 17. We estimate that, at that point, Treasury would have only approximately $30 billion to meet our country’s commitments. This amount would be far short of net expenditures on certain days, which can be as high as $60 billion. If we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history.
In my estimation, this means the debt ceiling will be increased on the eleventh hour of October 16th following a 20 hour fundraising drive held on the floor of congress by 2016 hopefuls.
You can read the full treasury report here.