|
|
|
Last Updated: Sep 25th, 2006 - 11:36:04 |
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow warned lawmakers on Thursday that a legally set limit on the government's ability to borrow will be hit in mid-February and urged Congress to raise it quickly.
Failure to do so potentially risks throwing the country into its
first default in history, Snow warned in what has become virtually
an annual rite as U.S. borrowing needs spiral.
"The administration now projects that the statutory debt limit,
currently $8.184 trillion, will be reached in mid-February 2006,"
Snow said in a letter to 21 members of the U.S. House of
Representatives and Senate released by Treasury after financial
markets had closed.
Snow said that Treasury, if the debt limit was not raised by then,
would have to take "extraordinary actions" to keep paying its bills
for everything from Social Security to national defense spending.
Even if Treasury took "all available prudent and legal actions to
avoid breaching the statutory debt limit, we anticipate that we can
finance government operations no longer than mid-March."
The debt limit was last raised in November 2004 by $800 billion to
its current level. The letter to Congress does not specify an amount
the Treasury wants the ceiling set at this time.
But he said quick action was needed to preserve the U.S. ability to
borrow in global capital markets at the lowest rates possible.
"A failure to increase the debt limit in a timely manner would
threaten this unique and important position," Snow said.
The call for an increase in the debt ceiling typically provokes a
round of criticism from opposition politicians over excessive
government spending and the process is drawn out until nearly the
last possible moment.
Treasury officials had said in November it was bracing for hefty
borrowing needs in the January-March quarter, likely around a record
$171 billion, and that it likely would hit the debt limit in that
period.
Among other factors, the Treasury cited increased spending for
rebuilding Gulf Coast areas hit hard by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
|
