New Government Borrowing Cap
Sunday, February 9th, 2014 -- 9:17 AM
The U.S. government is getting a new borrowing cap Friday, almost four months after Washington diffused October's government shutdown and debt crisis.The new cap is expected to be about $17.2 trillion. It means Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will have to employ bookkeeping maneuvers to keep the government functioning until Congress further raises the borrowing limit.
Lew warns he has less maneuvering room now than he had last year, when such "extraordinary measures" bought five months of time for the government to keep borrowing while at the previous $16.7 trillion debt ceiling.
Lawmakers temporarily suspended the borrowing limit last October in the agreement to end the shutdown. It will be reset at the total amount of debt at close of business on Friday.
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