Debt ceiling could be hit by end of March

What a debt default would mean
The letter Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sent to Congress on the Debt ceiling is worth reading in full, as it does a nice job describing a danger that I'm not sure most people fully appreciate. My sense is that the mental model most people have of defaulting on the Debt ceiling looks something like shutting down the government. But that's not it at all. It's more like shutting down The Economy. Think back to the Financial Crisis. The underlying cause was that various financial entities stopped...

A debt ceiling freeze is sheer idiocy
By law, a statutory limit restricts the total amount of Debt the Federal Government can accumulate. This limit can only be increased by Congress. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner noted in a letter to Congress yesterday that this “debt ceiling” will be reached as early as March 31, 2011. Many “Tea Party” Candidates campaigned on the promise to vote against any increases to the Debt ceiling. Following through on this pledge would be unbelievably reckless and could potentially cra

Geithner Pushes Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling
Reuters reports: Republicans acknowledged on Thursday they will have to sign off on more Deficit spending to avoid a Debt default that would roil Financial Markets and bring the government to a grinding halt. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed lawmakers to raise the nation’s $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit to allow the United States to borrow more and avert a crisis in the coming months. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican, said he recognized the need to allow the ...

GOP faces spending test as debt nears $14.3T ceiling
The Obama Administration on Thursday told Congress the government is about to hit the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling and will need authority to borrow more, kicking off the first major test of spending restraint and the strength of Republicans' new congressional power. Republicans said they won't agree to a higher Debt Limit unless Democrats agree to strict new spending controls. Democrats warned the GOP not "to play chicken" with The Economy and said hitting the limit could be worse than the finan...

Geithner Urges Congress to Increase Debt Limit
The Obama Administration has formally urged Congress to increase the government’s borrowing limit, now $14.3 Trillion, as early as the end of March and no later than May 16 to avoid an unprecedented default. The letter from Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner arrived a day after a new Congress convened with Republicans now holding a majority in the House and a larger minority in the Senate, and with many of the newcomers pledged to vote against any increase in the Debt Limit. Raising it is...

Geithner Urges Congress to Raise Debt Limit
WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs. The government will reach the limit between March 31 and May 16, Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders. Not increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit could lead to Job Losses, he said. Inaction could drive up Interest Rates and make it more costly for U.S. companies to bor...

Ano honest Question About the Debt Ceiling
So we seem to be facing a problem: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs. The government will reach the limit between March 31 and May 16, Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders. Not increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit could lead to Job Losses, he said. Inaction could drive up Interest Rates and make it more costly f...

Dems, GOP jockey over debt ceiling
House Republicans might want to duck: They’re about to run smack into the Debt ceiling. A spending-obsessed new Republican majority received a dire warning from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who sent Congress a letter Thursday outlining the doomsday scenario that would ensue if lawmakers fail to raise the Debt Limit and the nation defaults on its credit obligations. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 The early missive from Geithner sets the stage for what could be...

Geithner Urges Congress to Raise Debt Limit
(WASHINGTON) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs. The government will reach the limit between March 31 and May 16, Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders. Not increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit could lead to Job Losses, he said. Inaction could drive up Interest Rates and make it more costly for U.S. companies...

Thoughts on the Debt Limit Debate
The origins of the Federal Government’s statutory Debt Limit can be traced back to 1917, when the country was borrowing money to finance the Great War. Congress has voted to increase the limit numerous times over the decades, including 10 times since 2001. The present Debt Limit is $14.3 Trillion, and total outstanding Debt subject to the limit currently stands at just under $14 trillion. Given that policymakers don’t have the will to cut spending immediately in order to keep the deb...

Hatch says it's up to Obama to pressure Senate Dems on debt limit
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) says if Democrats want to find agreement on raising the Debt ceiling, President Obama will have to pressure congressional leaders to make serious concessions on Spending Cuts.  Hatch said he expects the new Republican majority in the House to vote to slash spending considerably in the run up to the vote on raising the Debt ceiling, which will place the ball in the court of Senate Democrats.   "That means the White House will have to exert its influence over Senate D...

US Treasury asks Congress to lift debt ceiling...
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to raise the US Debt ceiling Thursday, firing the starting gun for a fresh political battle over the country's massive Deficit. ...

US Treasury asks Congress to lift debt ceiling
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to raise the US Debt ceiling on Thursday, firing the starting gun on a fresh political battle over the country's massive debt. In a letter to senior members of Congress Geithner warned a failure to raise the Debt ceiling from $14.29 Trillion could prompt a US default as soon as this March, with "catastrophic economic consequences." "Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the Debt Limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit wou...

Sperling to head National Economic Council
Source: MSNBC Sperling, who was the head of the council under former President Clinton, would replace Larry Summers. Sperling is currently counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The president will make the announcement tomorrow during his visit to Thompson Creek Manufacturing in Landover, MD, a window manufacturer. While there, the president will also tour the facility and comment on the monthly employment report. Read more: https://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/06/5779327... ...

Debt limit already a hot-button issue for GOP
In power scarcely a day, House Republicans bluntly told the White House on Thursday its request to raise the nation’s $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit will require federal Spending Cuts to win their approval, laying down an early marker in a new era of divided government. Speaker John Boehner made the challenge as the new GOP majority voted to cut funding for House members’ own offices and committee operations by $35 million. Rank and File Republicans described that vote as a mere down paym...

December 2010 Unemployment Report: A Big "Meh"
December's Unemployment Rate was released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U-3 Unemployment dropped from 9.8% last month to 9.4% this month. The U-6 number dropped from 17% to 16.7%. Only 103,000 jobs were added, however, which indicates that the drop in Unemployment was more due to people leaving the Labor Force than getting jobs. [This job number is based on a survey of industry, rather than actual Payrolls, like ADP's job number (+297K). The truth this month is likely to lie s...

The Constitution Is Just Words, Until We Give Them Meaning
The new Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, in a Tea Party-inspired Publicity Stunt, kicked off the 112th Congress yesterday by inviting members of both political parties to read the entire text of the Constitution aloud for what appears to be the first time in the chamber’s history. Ascendant Conservatives hoped to paint their movement as the legitimate, deferential protector of our founding document. But Students of (non-redacted) Civil Rights history and of Constituti...

Bernanke urges Congress to adopt sweeping deficit plan
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday urged Congress to act to bring down Trillion-dollar Deficits that he warned threaten the nation's economic future. He said that sweeping plans offered last month by President Obama's deficit commission and other Bipartisan groups offered "useful starting points for a much-needed national conversation about our medium- and long-term fiscal situation." Those plans included cuts in nearly every part of government, from defense and Social Security t...

MEGAN MCARDLE ON THE DEBT CEILING: I dont have a problem with Republicans using the opportunity o
Megan McArdle ON THE Debt CEILING: “I don’t have a problem with Republicans using the opportunity of raising the debt ceiling to demagogue the Deficit problem-this is one issue that needs all the passion it can get. And Democrats can hardly complain, since one Senator Barack Obama was doing just that four years ago. However. If Republicans want to reduce the deficit-and they say they do!-then they should find some damn Spending Cuts to match the gargantuan Tax Cut...

Baucus warns GOP against 'playing chicken' on debt limit
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is warning Republicans against "playing chicken" on increasing the statutory Debt Limit. The Finance Committee Chairman agreed with recent GOP calls to reduce the Deficit, but said such efforts should be done in a "serious, Bipartisan Fashion" that "doesn't risk the full faith and credit of our economy and our country in the process," according to a statement released by his office. "Rather than waiting until the last minute, we need to work together with our colleagu...

Graham Explains What Happens If GOP Blocks Debt Ceiling Increase: Collapse and Calamity Throughout The World
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced today that the United States will hit its $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit on March 31 of this year. If Congress does not move to increase the National Debt ceiling by that time, “disastrous consequences” for the nation’s economy will result, according to a report from the Center for American Progress. Despite the real danger, many Republicans in Congress are trying to use the Debt ceiling as a political chip in order to impose draconian spe...

Raising The Debt Ceiling Would Require Serious Spending Cuts
Republicans lost the trust of the American People during the last decade because they were fiscally irresponsible when they controlled all three branches of the Federal Government. Such recklessness helped allow Democrats to take over Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008. While they were in power, Democrats showed even less restraint, spending Taxpayer money as if they were on Steroids and bringing the country close to hitting the Debt ceiling. During the Midterm Elections, Americans thr...

GOP faces spending test as debt nears $14.3T ceiling
The Obama Administration on Thursday told Congress the government is about to hit the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling and will need authority to borrow more, kicking off the first major test of spending restraint and the strength of Republicans' new congre......

Obama admin. confident Congress will raise debt ceiling
The Treasury Department is confident the new Congress will act by the end of the First Quarter of this year to raise the government's Debt ceiling, a move that would avert a default by the United States on its obligations and a subsequent Financial Crisis. Despite the apocalyptic language used by White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee over the weekend about the dire consequences of a failure to raise the nation's Debt Limit from its current level of $14.29 Trillion, Treasury officials toda...

Dick Morris Thinks Shutting Down the Government to Repeal Health Care Bill is a Great Idea
Dick Morris thinks that we should shut down the government if President Obama doesn't agree to defund the Health Care law. Even Bill O'Reilly is skeptical of his nonsense. I'd like to know how may Homeless people Dick Morris would like to take in after we have economic chaos if either the Congress or the president follow his suggestions here since he apparently has no concern whatsoever for what would happen if the government defaults on its Debt. Led by the advice of Newt Gingrich, the former H...