- The Washington Times - Monday, May 16, 2011

The federal government officially bumped up against its borrowing limit Monday, an unhappy milestone that signals the beginning of a two-month sprint during which Congress and the White House will try to agree on whether to raise the debt ceiling while imposing spending restraints.

In the short term, hitting the debt limit means little - the Treasury Department has tools it can use to keep government running at full tilt through early August. But if the $14.294 trillion ceiling is not raised by then, the government will have to stop paying more than a third of its annual spending, which could halt workers’ salaries, contracts, entitlement benefits, interest payments or some combination of those.

“We need to have a vote to lift the debt ceiling because the consequences of not doing so would be quite serious, indeed,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with President Obama. “Those who suggest otherwise are whistling past the graveyard.”

Even many Republicans say they want to raise the borrowing limit, but there the agreement ends.

The White House has called for a “clean” increase. Officials have said that they don’t want to spook the financial markets by suggesting there are conditions to raising the ceiling. But Republicans have said that is impossible and irresponsible because it would allow the government to continue piling up record annual deficits.

The GOP’s leaders are insisting on binding changes in the short term to discretionary spending, and in the long term to entitlement spending.

“Americans understand we simply can’t keep spending money we don’t have,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “There will be no debt limit increase without serious budget reforms and significant spending cuts - cuts that are greater than any increase in the debt limit.”

Even the White House mixed its messages. Spokesmen have insisted that conditions won’t be attached, but Mr. Obama has said he expects to have to agree to some GOP demands.

The president is also the victim of his own record. He voted against raising the debt ceiling while he was in the Senate. His advisers have since said that was a mistake.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner alerted Congress in a letter Monday that the ceiling had been hit. He said he will temporarily stop paying into some government retirement funds, delaying the crossing of the statutory debt limit until Aug. 2.