U.S. Senator Joe Manchin says he will not vote to raise the amount of debt the federal government can carry in February if significant spending cuts are left out of the proposal.
“There is no way that I can vote to raise the debt ceiling unless we keep our promise for the sequestering of $1.2 trillion and we find another $1.25 trillion of more cuts,” Senator Manchin said on a recent edition of MetroNews Talkline.
The U.S. Treasury formally reached the current debt limit of $16.39 trillion back on December 31st.
It is now operating under so called “extraordinary measures,” accounting strategies that minimize the securities the Treasury is holding in government accounts. It’s basically borrowed time.
Without action from Congress, analysts predict the U.S. Treasury will run through its financing capacity somewhere around March 1st. That means the government would not be able to pay what it owes its own citizens, in some cases. The Treasury would be in default.
President Barack Obama says, without question, the debt ceiling should be raised by as much as $1 trillion.
“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” the President said.
Congress last raised the debt limit in August 2011, but it was a decision that came down to the last minute. The delay lead to a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s. Moody’s, the rating agency, has already warned more political battles could lead to additional downgrades.
Such a move for the debt ceiling this year, though, will face strong opposition from Republicans who have said any increase to the debt ceiling needs to be countered with entitlement reforms and spending cuts.
Senator Manchin, a Democrat, agrees.
“If the President just brings a bill forward to raise the debt ceiling and we haven’t worked on how we’re going to manage this debt, between now and April 1, I’m not voting to raise the debt ceiling,” he said.