As tension continues to mount on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned several Congressional leaders on Wednesday that America would face the debt ceiling this week.
“As you know, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 suspended the statutory debt limit through Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Beginning on Thursday, March 16, 2017, the outstanding debt of the United States will be at the statutory limit,” Mnuchin wrote. “At that time, Treasury anticipates that it will need to start taking certain extraordinary measures in order to temporarily prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations.”
“As I said in my confirmation hearing, honoring the full faith and credit of our outstanding debt is a critical commitment,” he continued. “I encourage Congress to raise the debt limit at the first opportunity so that we can proceed with our joint priorities.”
The debt ceiling refers to the upper limit of money that the United States can borrow before the nation defaults. Accordingly, Mnuchin’s “extraordinary measures” would stop any spending that would count against it: Starting with his suspension of several state and local securities starting on March 15, this could later include actions like “suspending investments in federal employee pension plans and halting sales of U.S. savings bonds,” according to Reuters.
But this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2013, many Republicans resisted efforts to raise the debt ceiling and protested against increased spending (particularly with Obamacare), leading to a partial shutdown of the federal government. And in 2015, Congress passed another bill to suspend the debt limit so Washington could fulfill its payment obligations.
With everyone’s eyes focused on Obamacare, however, politicians in Washington are not expected to fully respond until later this year.
When asked about Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney’s past opposition against raising the debt ceiling, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Thursday: “I think we’ve got a few months to do that. I think the Secretary was making Congress very much aware. We’ve now been in the White House six weeks; we’re approaching the fiftieth day here of this administration. I think we are trying to deal with the situation at hand.”
“Part of the reason that [President Donald Trump] has addressed the budget the way he has is to try to get our nation’s debt, deficit, and budget in order,” Spicer went on to say. “I think he’s continuing to show a tremendous respect for taxpayer money, the way we spend money, and bring it down. But obviously, there are certain things that are a little beyond our control when we walk into this building, and we’re going to work with Secretary Mnuchin and Director Mulvaney to address this issue, and obviously with Congress.”
This follows after a Tuesday report from the Congressional Budget Office indicated that Treasury cutbacks could keep Congressional action at bay until this fall.
