USA FACTS

 

Raising the debt ceiling

The US hit its debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion on January 19. Failing to raise the ceiling could lead to furloughs of government employees and closing national parks, among other consequences. President Joe Biden has said he will not negotiate on raising the debt limit, while other lawmakers see this as an opportunity to reduce federal spending. USAFacts has the history behind the debt ceiling and how it works. When the national debt exceeds the debt ceiling, the federal government cannot increase its outstanding debt. In these instances, the Treasury Department can use extraordinary measures to manage the federal government’s finances and remain under the debt limit. These measures can include halting Treasury bond sales and suspending investments into government savings, retirement, and health plans.     The US has either raised, extended, or revised the debt limit 78 times since 1960. It has never failed to raise the debt ceiling.   If the Treasury Department is unable to borrow money or reduce expenses to stay under the debt ceiling, the nation could default on its outstanding loans. Credit rating groups could downgrade US credit as a result.  Learn more about the debt ceiling's history. How many people are on Social Security disability? Last June, approximately 7.8 million workers nationwide received disability benefits. That’s about 4% of adults between ages 18 and 64. As part of USAFacts’ Social Security disability benefits deep dive, here are the rates at which Americans are approved for benefits and the months-long road some people take for the appeals process.

West Virginia has the highest percentage of working-age adults on Social Security disability benefits: 11.1%. Kentucky had the second highest, 9.8%, followed by Mississippi and Arkansas at 9.7%.   Two million people apply for one or both Social Security disability programs every year.   In 2022, the national approval rate for initial applications was around 36%. Applicants not meeting the Social Security Administration's technical requirements were denied before an official assessment of medical conditions. About 37% of initial applications had technical denials.   Around half of applicants denied at the initial stage appealed for reconsideration. Nearly 13% of these applications were approved after an average of 11 months and 27 days since their initial application. The part of the process with the highest acceptance rate comes nearly a year and 11 months after first filing. Follow the animated chart for an annotated breakdown of the process. According to a 2020 Government Accountability Office report, the median time for a decision on claims filed in 2010 was 561 days. This grew to 839 days for claims filed in 2015. The report found that roughly 10,000 applicants die and 8,000 file for bankruptcy while waiting for a decision on their application. See more of this unique analysis at USAFacts. Electricity data and the future of electric vehicles  Last year, California established that all new cars and light trucks sold must be zero-emission by 2035. Since about a third of states have agreed to follow California’s vehicle emission standards, this raises questions over how much more electricity would be needed to power these cars in the coming years. Based on 2019 data, the US would need to produce 20-50% more electricity in a year if all cars were electric.   According to the Energy Department, it costs approximately 35-75% less per mile to run electric vehicles compared to gas-powered vehicles.

The average nationwide cost of retail gasoline has risen 46% since 2011, while residential electricity costs increased by 30%.   All-electric vehicles produced an average 2,817 pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions per vehicle across the country in 2021, compared to 12,594 pounds per gas-powered vehicle.

Electricity production varies between states and those differences impact states' total emissions from powering electric vehicles. West Virginia uses coal for over 90% of its electric power compared to neighboring Virginia, which has an energy portfolio that includes natural gas and nuclear power. Electric vehicles in West Virginia emitted an average of 6,228 pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions per car in 2021. Electric cars in Virginia each emitted 2,085 pounds. Learn more about how the nation generates electricity and what it could mean for electric vehicles. And does the nation have enough electric car charging stations? Data behind the news In the wake of Saturday's mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, here are metrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on firearm deaths in America. Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Given the Court’s recent reversal of the decision, see how the 2022 midterms affected abortion access. Ready for the next weekly fact quiz? Take it here.  One last fact

Across all racial and ethnic groups, women vote at higher rates than men. This trend is consistent among Hispanic voters, where 63% of eligible Hispanic women registered to vote in 2020, compared with 59% of eligible Hispanic men.