US Treasury to take steps to avoid borrowing limit

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department will begin taking steps this week to delay hitting the government's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit. Without those steps, the debt limit would be hit on Dec. 31.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders that the department will take several accounting measures to save approximately $200 billion. The government borrows about $100 billion a month, so that typically would keep the government from reaching the limit for about two months.

The move comes as President Barack Obama and the GOP congressional leadership are locked in negotiations over how to avoid a series of tax increases and spending cuts, known as the "fiscal cliff," that are scheduled to take effect next week.

Obama has sought to include an increase in the borrowing limit in the talks. But Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders have demanded concessions in return. The negotiations hit a stalemate last week. Obama and lawmakers are returning to Washington this week to resume talks.

Geithner says it is harder to predict how long the delay will last because ongoing negotiations over tax and budget policies make it hard to forecast what tax revenue and government spending will be next year.

The borrowing limit is the amount of debt the government can pile up. The government accumulates debt two ways: It borrows money from investors by issuing Treasury bonds, and it borrows from itself, mostly from Social Security revenue.

In 2011, Congress raised the limit to nearly $16.4 trillion from $14.3 trillion. Three decades ago, the national debt was $908 billion. But Washington spent more than it took in, and the debt rose steadily — surpassing $1 trillion in 1982, then $5 trillion in 1996. It reached $10 trillion in 2008 as the financial crisis and recession dried up tax revenue and as the government spent more on unemployment benefits and other programs.