- That the national debt limit needs to be raised because
we are borrowing so much money is no great secret, but the Republican-led
Congress wants to raise that limit with as little public notice as possible.
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- That would rule out a freestanding vote because that
would highlight the record deficits the Republicans have run up over the
last three years. The Democrats, retroactive converts to the cause of balanced
budgets, would point out that, after taking office with the publicly held
share of the national debt declining thanks to four years of surpluses,
the Bush administration has had to twice ask that the borrowing cap be
lifted, for a total of $1.4 trillion. Now it needs a third of about $690
billion -- and soon. That would take the gross national debt to more than
$8 trillion, an impressive number.
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- The leadership had hoped to slip the increase through
as part of a congressional budget resolution, but for the second year in
a row, House and Senate Republicans might not be able to agree on a budget.
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- So the House Republican leadership decided to attach
the debt limit to a huge, $417 billion defense spending bill that was certain
to pass, and did by 403 to 17 _ although the vote to attach the debt limit
provision was approved only 220-196.
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- The Senate is also inclined to include an increase to
the debt limit as part of its defense spending bill, but the Senate moves
at its own stately pace. The White House is anxious to get this issue settled
and out of the way lest some Ross Perot type make it a political issue
as happened to the first President Bush in 1992.
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- The Treasury will bump up against the $7.3 trillion debt
limit later this summer. The White House has told congressional Republicans
that Bush's Treasury secretary, John Snow, could stall for time, and maybe
even get past the November election without lifting the cap, by juggling
some government accounts and borrowing from others.
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- But there's a problem: When President Clinton's Treasury
secretary Robert Rubin did that, these same congressional Republicans threatened
to impeach him. It's so true in Washington: What goes around, comes around.
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- (Contact Dale McFeatters at McFeattersD@SHNS.com. Distributed
by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com)
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- © Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue
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- http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_4737.shtml
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