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View Full Version : The OFFICIAL Debt Ceiling/Continuing Resolution 2015 Thread - Shutdown Ahead?




jllundqu
09-16-2015, 09:05 AM
Please use this thread to post news and opinion about the Continuing Resolution, Debt Ceiling, and possible government shutdown.

The end of the line is fast approaching once again. We have no budget... and have not had an actual budget for many years. The debt ceiling was reached many months ago... (March I think?) and the Treasury has expended all its accounting tricks to hold the current federal debt at a standstill.

This is a topic that I don't think is getting the attention it deserves.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-lawmakers-agenda-raise-the-debt-ceiling-1441910479


WASHINGTON—Lawmakers back to Capitol Hill this week face a packed agenda of unfinished fiscal business ripe for partisan scrapes. For economists and investors, one item stands out: Raising the government’s federal borrowing limit.

“Of all the bumps that are most frightening, the debt ceiling is the biggest one,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of economic forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers.



The concern from outside Washington stems from the similar standoffs that have taken the government to the brink of default in recent years. In 2011, the U.S. saw market volatility spike and its debt rating downgraded. In 2013, a debt-ceiling extension emerged only after a government shutdown. Observers worry that, as such episodes become routine, investors could grow complacent about the potential that Congress doesn’t reach an agreement.

The Treasury Department has used emergency measures to avoid breaching the ceiling since the federal borrowing limit’s most recent suspension ended in mid-March. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a July letter asking Congress to raise the limit without delay that those steps would run out some time after late October. The Congressional Budget Office said last month that a surge in revenue this year would buy lawmakers a little more time before the Treasury runs out of cash, between mid-November and early December. Mr. Lew reiterated the push in another letter to lawmakers on Thursday.