Treasury Secretary Sends Warning on Debt Limit
By JONATHAN WEISMAN, NYT, JAN. 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew warned Congress on Wednesday that the government would most likely exhaust its ability to borrow in late February, setting up yet another fiscal showdown with Republicans, and this time earlier than congressional leaders had anticipated.
In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner and the other top three congressional leaders, Mr. Lew said a surge of February spending, mainly tax refunds for 2013, would leave the Treasury with little room to maneuver after the official debt limit is reached on Feb. 7.
The letter amounts to an early alarm bell, coming just weeks after Congress passed its first bipartisan budget and comprehensive spending bill in years. Those bills were supposed to serve as a cease-fire in the budget wars that have rattled the country and the economy since Republicans took control of the House in 2011.
But they left untouched the debt limit, which has been a rallying cry for conservatives for three years. As recently as last week, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the debt ceiling fight could be put off until as late as May while the Treasury shuffled government accounts to meet its obligations.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew warned Congress on Wednesday that the government would most likely exhaust its ability to borrow in late February, setting up yet another fiscal showdown with Republicans, and this time earlier than congressional leaders had anticipated.
In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner and the other top three congressional leaders, Mr. Lew said a surge of February spending, mainly tax refunds for 2013, would leave the Treasury with little room to maneuver after the official debt limit is reached on Feb. 7.
The letter amounts to an early alarm bell, coming just weeks after Congress passed its first bipartisan budget and comprehensive spending bill in years. Those bills were supposed to serve as a cease-fire in the budget wars that have rattled the country and the economy since Republicans took control of the House in 2011.
But they left untouched the debt limit, which has been a rallying cry for conservatives for three years. As recently as last week, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the debt ceiling fight could be put off until as late as May while the Treasury shuffled government accounts to meet its obligations.
(More here.)
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