Who knew that getting bin Laden would be easier
than getting GOP to take care of debt limit?
NYT:
The Treasury Department will initiate emergency measures Friday to keep the federal government’s total borrowing under the maximum allowed by law, as Congress continues to debate the terms of any increase in the debt ceiling.
Treasury now estimates that the emergency measures will allow the government to meet its existing commitments until the first week in August, officials said Monday, updating an earlier estimate that the government could run short of money by early July.
“While this updated estimate in theory gives Congress additional time to complete work on increasing the debt limit, I caution strongly against delaying action,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner wrote in a letter sent Monday to each member of Congress.
Apparently, we'll actually reach the debt limit in about two weeks, but the Treasury Department will be able to put in place its emergency measures for about three months as Congress (specifically, the House) gets its act together. If they don't, we'll face the prospect of economic calamity and global financial system meltdown.
Even though they just agreed to a budget that adds $1.6 trillion to the national debt, Republicans are pretending that they won't approve a debt ceiling hike without destructive spending cuts. Basically, they are threatening the nation with economic doom unless they get their way. In other words, they are claiming that they are terrorists. But here's one of those rare occasions where you'll see me defend Republicans: they're not terrorists. They're going to back down. And the sooner they do it, the better off everybody will be.