<font color=brown> You complain about the oil which also Bush's fault but you say nada about the budget deficits. The deficits are killing us and most likely will put us back into recession by 2005.
Thanks, Mr. Bush! <font color=black>
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US debt limit must be raised by summer-Tsy's Snow
Thursday May 20, 1:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - The legal limit on U.S. government debt must be raised by late summer if Washington is to keep up payments to retirees and armed services members, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow warned on Thursday.
Answering questions before a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations sub-committee, he said the limit must be raised despite rising tax revenues flowing into Treasury's coffers.
"Even with the improving budgetary situation we are seeing, (with) additional tax receipts running above expectations to a good tune ... the farthest out I could see us going is late summer," Snow said.
If it was not raised by then, the government would have difficulty making monthly Social Security payments to retirees and paying members of the armed services, he suggested.
"You can't go out beyond that. ... This is a serious issue," Snow said.
The limit is now $7.384 trillion and it is up to Congress to raise that limit should the government reach the ceiling.
Raising the limit on how much the government can borrow to finance its daily operations is always a sensitive political issue, but it is all the more so this year ahead of November presidential elections when opposition Democrats see Republicans as vulnerable because of huge budget deficits.
During the 1990s, when Republicans were in the minority and Democratic administrations were in power, battles in Congress over raising the debt limit led to brief government shutdowns and provoked bitter exchanges before Treasury experienced four years of budget surpluses at the end of the decade.
The surpluses disappeared under the current Bush administration and Democrats are eager to highlight record budget deficits, setting the stage for a contentious struggle over hiking the debt limit later this year.
reuters.com |
