Debt Ceiling Increase Demanded by White House
On Feb. 27, President George W. Bush said that he told Congressional leaders, during a breakfast meeting that morning, "do not play politics with the debt ceiling, that we're at war, we've got troops all around the world, we've got men and women whose lives are at risk, and now is not the time to be playing politics and using the debt ceiling as an excuse for some individual's cause." The Bush Administration has requested an increase in the debt ceiling from the current $5.95 trillion to $6.7 trillion, an increase of $750 billion, or 12.5%. The Treasury Department is warning that if the increase is not granted, the government could run out of borrowing authority by the end of March.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) expects the House to act on a clean debt limit bill, that is, without any extraneous legislation attached to it. He said that at the White House meeting, "We all agreed that keeping a clean debt limit bill is something that would be in everyone's best interest."
However, this is an election year. Democrats are expected to point out that President Bush is asking for the first debt limit increase in four years, after four years of budget surpluses. That argument is making some House Republicans nervous about being accused of fiscal irresponsibility. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas told Associated Press that he may call on Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to take the same steps that Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin took in 1995, when President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill that included a debt limit increase. Rubin shifted money from civil service retirement funds in order to keep the government from defaulting. Said Thomas, "Maybe O'Neill ought to look at it and see if it's something he could adopt." Ironically, the GOP accused Rubin, at the time, of possible constitutional violations in his effort to keep the government functioning.
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