Posted on 05/16/2011 7:16:36 AM PDT by blam
As US Reaches Debt Limit, Geithner Implements Additional Extraordinary Measures To Allow Continued Funding Of Government Obligations
By: Colleen Murray
5/16/2011
Today, the United States has reached the statutory debt limit. Secretary Geithner sent the following letter to Congress this morning alerting them to actions that have be taken to create additional headroom under the debt limit so that Treasury can continue funding obligations made by Congresses past and present. The Secretary declared a "debt issuance suspension period" for the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, permitting Treasury to redeem a portion of existing Treasury securities held by that fund as investments and suspend issuance of new Treasury securities to that fund as investments. He also suspended the daily reinvestment of Treasury securities held as investments by the Government Securities Investment Fund of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan. For more information on these measures, please read this FAQ.
Last Friday, Secretary Geithner also responded to an inquiry from Senator Bennet regarding the fiscal and economic consequences of failing to increase the debt limit. That letter can be found here.
Secretary Geithner continues to urge Congress to raise the debt limit in a timely manner in order to uphold the full faith and credit of the United States.
The Honorable Harry Reid Democratic Leader United States Senate Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Leader:
I am writing to notify you, as required under 5 U.S.C. § 8348(l)(2), of my determination that, by reason of the statutory debt limit, I will be unable to invest fully the portion of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (“CSRDF”) not immediately required to pay beneficiaries. For purposes of this statute, I have determined that a “debt issuance suspension period” will begin today, May 16, 2011, and last until August 2, 2011, when the Department of the Treasury projects that the borrowing authority of the United States will be exhausted. During this “debt issuance suspension period,” the Treasury Department will suspend additional investments of amounts credited to, and redeem a portion of the investments held by, the CSRDF, as authorized by law.
In addition, I am notifying you, as required under 5 U.S.C. § 8438(h)(2), of my determination that, by reason of the statutory debt limit, I will be unable to invest fully the Government Securities Investment Fund (“G Fund”) of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System in interest-bearing securities of the United States, beginning today, May 16, 2011. The statute governing G Fund investments expressly authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to suspend investment of the G Fund to avoid breaching the statutory debt limit.
Each of these actions has been taken in the past by my predecessors during previous debt limit impasses. By law, the CSRDF and G Funds will be made whole once the debt limit is increased. Federal retirees and employees will be unaffected by these actions.
I have written to Congress on previous occasions regarding the importance of timely action to increase the debt limit in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens. I again urge Congress to act to increase the statutory debt limit as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Timothy F. Geithner
Identical letter sent to:
The Honorable John A. Boehner, Speaker of the House The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader
cc: The Honorable Dave Camp, Chairman, House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Sander M. Levin, Ranking Member, House Committee on Ways and Means The Honorable Max Baucus, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance The Honorable Orrin Hatch, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Finance All other Members of the 112th Congress
Colleen Murray is Spokesperson for Domestic Finance.
They’ve robbed Social Security...now they’re after government worker pensions, whose do you think are next?
Have tar, need feathers..
martial.... LOL!
Cut everything by 25 percent, including taxes, then get out of the way of the roaring economy-!!
The country didn’t collapse and the Government is somewhat being forced to look at ways they spend.
No debt ceiling increase, ever!
marital law to be put in place on the eave of the elections.
Don’t know who is going to try to enforce said martial law, but they better be wearing triple kevlar and not be a local resident.
Yep!
I’m so sick you RINOs always wanting to cut our defense!
We need these redundant long standing programs with no real deliverables that always run billions of dollars over budget! It is one of the few industries we have left!
Now if you will excuse I’m off to donate socks, body armor and other supplies to our troops who seem to never have enough some how.
Turbo Tax Timmy is even floating he is so desperate he will HAVE TO TAP pensions.
He will also show a vampire ready to attack us all if we do not raise the debt ceiling. ABC and the ComPost are sure the culprits and private press in campaign of Obama/Timmy propaganda
RAIDED....the sme will be heading our way with our 401Ks
It is not an accident that they chose to pull money from the pensions.
The Golden Goose has done gone dry,
Timothy Giethner done goin’ t’ cry.
Any peep about curtailing spending?
Bingo! Just like the Irish Government did last week with pensions —applied a tax to them. I think the real endgame however is the confiscation of ALL private 401k (and similar plans), to force everyone into a government-run “guaranteed pension” ala Argentina.
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Yeah but the government isn’t borrowing money from the public. The Federal Reserve buys in the vicinity of 70% of Treasury debt, so the government is borrowing money that it doesn’t have from itself. This is why raising the debt limit will not work.
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