Yahoo News
January 13, 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama formally notified Congress on Thursday that he plans a $1.2 trillion increase in the U.S. debt limit, prompting Republicans to level election-year charges that deficits are out of control.
Obama, in a one-sentence letter to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said "further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments."
The proposed increase would push the debt ceiling to $16.394 trillion.
The move by the Democratic president, who is seeking re-election in November, gives Congress 15 days to vote on a resolution of disapproval under terms of budget control legislation passed last year.
Lawmakers are unlikely to muster the votes needed to block the boost in U.S. borrowing capacity, so a replay of last summer's debt limit drama that brought the federal government to the brink of default and cost the United States its top-tier credit rating is not expected.
But the increase notification does give Republicans an opportunity to paint Obama as a spendthrift during an election year in which taxes and spending are key issues. They quickly blamed him for a lack of progress in reducing deficits after congressional deficit reduction talks collapsed late last year.
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