华盛顿——财政部长珍妮特·耶伦警告国会，她将耗尽机动空间，以防止美国在10月份扩大政府借款限额。
耶伦周三在给国会领导人的一封信中表示，如果国会不采取行动提高债务上限，她仍无法提供无法维持政府资金的具体日期。
耶伦写道:“根据我们最好和最新的信息，最有可能的结果是，现金和非常措施将在10月份用尽。
耶伦表示，最近解决债务限额的措施得到了“两党的广泛支持”，但共和党人表示，他们将反对民主党人通过在紧急预算法案中增加一项条款来解决债务限额的努力，国会需要在10月1日预算年度开始前通过该法案。需要立法来避免政府关门。
相反，一些共和党人表示，民主党人应该在3.5万亿美元的基础设施计划中增加债务限额，民主党人希望在没有共和党人投票的情况下通过该计划，使用一种被称为“预算和解”的程序。
但众议院议长南希·佩洛西周三表示，民主党不会将债务限额的提高纳入和解措施。她表示，民主党人有几个提高债务上限的“选择”，但她没有具体说明。
她表示，民主党人支持在特朗普执政期间取消借款限制，“因为这是负责任的行为。我希望共和党也能以同样负责任的方式行事。”
债务限额是指国会允许财政部借款以维持政府运转的金额。当债务限额在2019年7月暂停两年时，受限额约束的公共债务为22万亿美元。
当债务限额恢复时，限额重新设定为28.4万亿美元，即现有的债务水平。过去两年的大幅增长反映了国会投票批准的大量支持，以帮助个人和企业度过全球大流行。
耶伦一直在使用法律上所谓的“非常措施”，包括耶伦可以采取的各种簿记策略，以消除包括联邦工人养老金在内的各种政府信托基金的债务。一旦债务限额僵局得到解决，从信托基金中取出的资金将带利息归还。
耶伦敦促国会立即采取行动。
耶伦说:“一旦所有可用的措施和手头的现金全部用尽，美国将无法履行我们历史上第一次的义务。
尽管国会中的共和党人经常利用债务限额辩论从民主党总统那里获得预算让步，但议员们从未忘记提高债务限额或暂停债务限额，以允许政府继续借款。
然而，2011年，奥巴马政府和共和党之间的预算之争拖了这么久，以至于信用评级机构标准普尔历史上首次将一部分美国国债从AAA评级下调。
耶伦表示:“我们从过去的债务限额僵局中了解到，等到最后一刻才暂停或提高债务限额，可能会对企业和消费者信心造成严重伤害，提高纳税人的短期借贷成本，并对美国的信用评级产生负面影响。
她说:“如果出现令人质疑联邦政府履行所有义务能力的延误，可能会对美国经济和全球金融市场造成不可挽回的损害。“我恭敬地敦促国会尽快采取行动，保护美国的全部信仰和信用。”
Yellen warns US may hit debt limit in October
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning Congress that she will run out of maneuvering room to prevent the U.S. from broaching the government's borrowing limit in October.
In a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, Yellen said that she still could not provide a specific date for when she will be unable to keep the government funded, absent action by Congress to raise the debt limit.
“Based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October,” Yellen wrote.
Yellen said recent measures to address the debt limit had enjoyed “broad bipartisan support,” But Republicans have said they will oppose an effort by Democrats to deal with the debt limit by attaching a provision to an emergency budget bill that Congress will need to pass before the start of the budget year on Oct. 1. That legislation is needed to avoid agovernment shutdown.
Instead, some Republicans have said Democrats should attach a debt limit increase to the $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan that Democrats are hoping to pass without Republican votes, using a process known as “budget reconciliation.”
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democrats will not be putting the debt limit increase in the reconciliation measure. She said Democrats have several "options” for raising the debt ceiling but she did not specify for that they were.
She said Democrats supported lifting the borrowing limit under Trump “because it’s the responsible thing to do. I would hope that the Republicans would act in a similarly responsible way.”
The debt limit is the amount of money Congress allows Treasury to borrow to keep the government running. When the debt limit was suspended for two years in July 2019, the public debt subject to the limit stood at $22 trillion.
When the debt limit was re-instated, the limit reset to $28.4 trillion, the existing level of debt. The big jump in the past two years reflected the massive amounts of support Congress voted to approved to help individuals and businesses get through a global pandemic.
Yellen has been using what is termed in law “extraordinary measures” which cover a variety of bookkeeping maneuvers Yellen can take to remove debt from various government trust funds including federal workers' pensions. Once the debt limit impasse is resolved, the funds removed from the trust funds is restored with interest.
Yellen urged Congress to act without delay.
“Once all available measures and cash on hand are fully exhausted, the United States of America would be unable to meet its obligations for the first time in our history,” Yellen said.
While Republicans in Congress have often used the debt limit debate to extract budget concessions from Democratic presidents, lawmakers have never failed to raise the debt limit or suspend it to allow the government to keep borrowing.
However, in 2011, a budget battle between the Obama administration and Republicans dragged on for so long that the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded a portion of Treasury debt from its AAA rating for the first time in history.
“We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States,” Yellen said.
“A delay that calls into question the federal government's ability to meet all of its obligations would likely cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy and global financial markets,” she said. “I respectfully urge Congress to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible.”
