WASHINGTON — The federal government hits its $14.3 trillion dollar Congressionally-mandated borrowing limit today. However, Republican Tea-Baggers in the House say they won’t vote to extend the debt ceiling unless President Obama agrees to steep trillion-dollar cuts in federal spending. Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker, Washington, told ABC News if the debt limit isn’t extended, the government is no longer doing business as usual. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner has to start going through unusual procedures in order to avoid going over the limit and having the U.S. go into default. “People dislike the idea of borrowing, and that’s certainly understandable,” Baker said. “But in this case, all the borrowing is for programs that have already been approved by Congress. So, the borrowing is going for Medicare; it’s going for Social Security; it’s going for unemployment benefits. However, Baker said although we don’t want to see a failure to reach an agreement over extending the debt ceiling, it won’t be the end of the world. “I think some people have over-played it,” he said. “That is, it’s not literally the end of the world. Probably, it would be the end of Wall Street, though … The financial industry will almost never will never come back to what it was.”
Monday, May 16, 1 p.m.
