Treasury department moves to avoid debt limit.

source: Washington Post

Dearest everyone from John Snow to the Bush White House and GOP-controlled Congress:

Please cut up the credit cards and keep all receipts. By the way, you guys are bankrupting the country.

Treasury Secretary John Snow notified Congress on Monday that the administration has now taken "all prudent and legal actions," including tapping certain government retirement funds, to keep from hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit.

In a letter to Congress, Snow urged lawmakers to pass a new debt ceiling immediately to avoid the nation's first-ever default on its obligations.

"I know that you share the president's and my commitment to maintaining the full faith and credit of the U.S. government," Snow said in his letter to leaders in the House and Senate.

Treasury officials, briefing congressional aides last week, said that the government will run out of maneuvering room to keep from exceeding the current limit sometime during the week of March 20.

Snow in his letter notified lawmakers that Treasury would begin tapping the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which Treasury officials said would provide a "few billion" dollars in extra borrowing ability.

Treasury officials also announced that on Friday they had used the $15 billion in the Exchange Stabilization Fund, a reserve that the Treasury secretary has that is normally used to smooth out volatile movements in the value of the dollar in currency markets.

Treasury has also been taking investments out of a $65.3 billion government pension fund known as the G-fund.

I agree with Rep. Charles Rangel, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. Isn't this idea just hiding the disease, not curing the cancerous problem?

"Simply raising the limit on George W. Bush's credit card and crossing our fingers won't solve anything," Rangel, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "Any long-term debt limit increase must be accompanied by a serious effort to bring our budget back to the balance we achieved under the Clinton administration."

I think the boys in Congress and our fearless leader need to practice some of that "fiscal responsibility" their party is supposed to be about. Quit raping the Treasury in the name of the "war on terror."

Thanks,
A concerned citizen who actually gives a damn.