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WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Congressional Budget Office study says the Trump administration and its GOP allies in Congress won't have to act until sometime this fall to increase the government's borrowing limit.
Current law permits the administration to freely borrow through March 15m but the Treasury Department is permitted to use a variety of bookkeeping maneuvers to continue to finance government operations after that.
The CBO report calculates that such "extraordinary measures" would enable the government to meet all of its obligations — including interest payments, Social Security benefits and federal salaries — through the fall.
At that point, lawmakers would have to enact an increase in the government's borrowing limit to avoid a first-ever, economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. That's expected to be a difficult vote for tea party Republicans.
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