We just got over one of these, but here it comes again:
The White House plans to ask Congress for an increase in the debt limit before the end of the week, according to a senior Treasury Department official.
The debt limit is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by December 30. President Barack Obama is expected to ask for additional borrowing authority to increase the limit by $1.2 trillion.
Under the new budget, Congress can only vote to block the debt-ceiling extension with a disapproval resolution. Lawmakers have 15 days within receiving the request to vote down the debt limit increase.
The debt limit currently stands at $15.194 trillion and would increase to $16.394 trillion with the request.
This time though Democrats have some strong ammo entering this fight. Our nation’s credit downgrade in July was mostly due to the fighting over raising the debt limit that Republicans brought forth, but that has been the subject to much spin. Something that really can’t be spun though is how investors feel about the U.S. right now:
The U.S. government received record demand for its bonds in 2011, pushing longer-maturity Treasuries to their best performance since 1995 in a sign that President Barack Obama may have little difficulty financing a fourth consecutive year of $1 trillion budget deficits.
The Treasury Department attracted $3.04 for each dollar of the $2.135 trillion in notes and bonds sold, the most since the government began releasing the data in 1992 during the George H. W. Bush administration. The U.S. drew an all-time high bid-to- cover ratio of 9.07 for $30 billion of four-week bills it auctioned on Dec. 20 even though they pay zero percent interest.
Investors feel that the U.S. economy is a safe bet. Sure part of that is due to a lack of options right now, especially given the state of the European economies, but we work with what we got and live in a time of a global economy. If these money sharks are willing to invest in the United States then shouldn’t the GOP be willing to do the same? Well that’s if something else isn’t driving their motives, like putting their party above the well being of our nation.