Mnuchin Says U.S. Can Cope If Debt Ceiling Not Raised by August
by Saleha Mohsin and Andrew Mayeda
June 09, 2017 2:30 PM The U.S. government has “backup plans” for funding itself if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit before lawmakers leave for their August recess as hoped, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
“I don’t want to leave any doubt, we have plans, backup plans for funding the government,” Mnuchin told reporters Friday at a press conference in Ottawa with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau. “We will be fine if they don’t do it beforehand, but I want to emphasize that the sooner they do it, the less uncertainty there is in the market,” he said.
While the government hit its borrowing limit in March, it’s been relying on special accounting maneuvers to keep spending under the current ceiling of nearly $20 trillion. Increasing the debt limit -- a responsibility of Congress -- has become increasingly fraught in recent years as lawmakers used the debate as a bargaining chip for spending controls.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-09/mnuchin-says-u-s-can-cope-if-debt-ceiling-not-raised-by-august
