Here's something to keep in mind as you follow this evening's congressional debate over the debt ceiling.

According to the latest daily statement from the U.S. Treasury, the government had an operating cash balance of $73.8 billion at the end of the day yesterday.

Apple's last earnings report (PDF here) showed that the company had $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June.

In other words, the world's largest tech company has more cash than the world's largest sovereign government.

That's because Apple collects more money than it spends, while the U.S. government does not.

(The Atlantic and CNBC both pointed this out earlier.)

Find out just why Apple has so much cash with these mind-melting facts from its June Quarter >