Newsgroup: it.economia.borsa
Titolo: Bush tells Congress not to 'play politics' with debt ceiling

Bush tells Congress not to 'play politics' with debt ceiling
WASHINGTON (AFX) - President George Bush said Congress needs to increase the
debt ceiling and should "not play politics" with the matter.
"Now is an inappropriate time to play politics with the debt ceiling," Bush told
reporters travelling with him in North Carolina, "I urge the Congress to deal
with the debt ceiling, deal with it in a professional way, and move it on."
Bush said he delivered this message to congressional leaders in a breakfast
meeting at the White House this morning, adding that they agreed with the him on
the "need to have a good, sane policy" on the issue.
Bush noted that he would not make a recommendation on the size of the increase.
"We'll leave the size of the debt ceiling to the Treasury officials. They will
make the recommendation," Bush said in remarks released by the White House.
Late last year, the Treasury Department formally asked Congress to extend the
debt ceiling by 750 bln usd to 6.7 trln usd from the current 5.95 trln. They
have said they expect the debt ceiling to be breached sometime next month.
Monday, the level of debt was at 5.93 trln usd, according to the Treasury
Department, of which 3.45 trln was publicly-held debt.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said earlier today that the
Senate would take up the measure as soon as the House passes its version of the
legislation and urged House Republican leaders not to tie the debt ceiling
legislation to other legislative business.
"The House, of course, has to act first, and we're going to wait for the House
to send us a clean debt limit bill. I know that that's what they will do. And
once that happens, we'll try to keep it clean over here, and we'll send it off
to the president," Daschle told reporters on Capitol Hill, "my strong preference
is to keep it clean."
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said earlier today that the
legislation "serves no useful purpose," because the debt level is merely a
reflection of legislation previously approved by Congress.
"I'm not a great proponent of this type of legislation to begin with, because I
think the Congress enacts a tax structure and it enacts appropriations and the
difference between those two is the change in the debt," Greenspan told
lawmakers on the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives.
Part of the debt limit includes debt issued to the Social Security trust fund
and government pension funds. Greenspan said if a debt ceiling is enacted, it
should ideally only cover publicly-held debt, and not the securities issued by
Treasury to other government trust funds.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that it will be forced to alter debt
management tactics even before the ceiling is reached, "to preserve a cushion to
ensure we stay within the law."
This could include cancelling the sale of non-marketable debt, such as Patriot
Bonds and state and local government securities.
Illustrating other possible actions to keep within the law, the Treasury said it
has in the past allowed federal government pension funds to go uninvested in
Treasury securities, preserving room to issue new debt to the market to raise
cash or repay maturing securities.
Social Security surpluses have also been allowed in the past to go uninvested in
treasuries, Treasury said.
Private sector analysts say Treasury will be forced to take contingency action
at least a few weeks before the ceiling is hit, leaving action likely within the
next two weeks.

 Bush tells Congress not to 'play politics' with debt ceiling
Bella politica, vuole nippponizare gli Usa, ha cominciato dai tagli alle
tasse e adesso non vuole limiti per indebitarsi, mah