Behind the economy.. Janet Yellen tries to avoid debt

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently unveiled more measures to avoid breaching the federal government's borrowing limit, urging Congress to raise or suspend the ceiling.

“The Treasury Department will suspend reinvestment by a number of pension funds for civil servants and postal workers,” Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders, noting that the funds would be completed once the debt limit was suspended or increased.

Congress voted in July 2019 to suspend the debt limit until July 31, 2021, after which the previous limit, of $22 trillion, would be reset to include any new borrowing in the intervening years.

And last Sunday, the limit was brought back to about $28.5 trillion, a figure that includes debt owned by the public and government agencies.

The Treasury uses emergency accounting maneuvers to maintain cash, so the government can continue to pay its obligations to bondholders, Social Security recipients, veterans and others.

Once these measures are in place, the Treasury could begin defaulting on its obligations, which could lead to a default on US debt.

The steps announced, last Monday, were similar to the actions taken by the Treasury Department in previous cases, when the national debt rose against the borrowing limit. First.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the debt ceiling has been raised or revised 98 times.

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