The debt clock is ticking louder and louder in the United States : At midnight reaches, the most powerful nation on earth the set limit of 16.7 trillion dollars. It is the responsibility of Congress to raise the debt ceiling to avert a government default .
There is a tiny glimmer of hope that the Democrat -dominated Senate today brings a compromise on the way , the agreement will also dominated by Republicans in the House of Representatives . But nothing is certain . The White House is increasingly concerned that the war of words in the Capitol , the seat of Congress, leads to financial disaster .
Basically, U.S. President Barack Obama believes that Congress , the soup he has brewed, auslöffelt itself . Attempts by the Republicans to make concessions in budget dispute to conditions that affect his domestic centerpiece, health care reform, he refuses. He will not let itself be blackmailed as Obama. Finally he said of the Zoff : “People are fed so full of it.” And while the deputies and senators shred under the big white dome on Capitol Hill , the world looks on the U.S. president and wonders : Will the U.S. president really stand idly by while his country staggers into the financial abyss ?
Idly he would not stay viz. The most powerful man in the world would not be the most powerful man in the world , were it not for the one or the other loophole.
Whether the U.S. president could hernehmen this article as a basis for unauthorized increase in the debt ceiling 145 years later , is controversial among financial experts. And the White House also opposes it officially to make use of here . Own attorneys , according to the White House comes to the conclusion that the President does not have the power to simply override the limit. Moreover, it is unclear whether investors would buy without the consent of Congress received government bonds. But who knows whether the U.S. president would not think to ” 11:55 ” yet again about it.
He could therefore characterize a coin with a face value of $ 1 trillion , and submit it to the U.S. Federal Reserve and let the equivalent credited to his account . The trick with sparkles is not allowed by law , but a jumbo coin would be theoretically possible. This secret weapon is of course highly controversial . Opponents argue politicians would ultimately seduced into more and more into debt . And U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (58 ) has also not been sighted near the mints .
Likely, so that the U.S. can do officially on Thursday no more new debt . The Ministry of Finance in the morning may still be about $ 30 billion on the ” account”. The revenue from current taxes are to this day among the outputs , so the government must go to their account. In the evening, then $ 27.5 billion it. By the end of October, the reserves will continue to melt , 30 October it would then be over.
In addition, it is in the budget dispute also short-term issue laws. Since 1 October much of the U.S. federal government are closed and 350 000 employees forced leave because Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a budget at the beginning of the fiscal year.
The two leaders in the Senate – Majority Leader Harry Reid ( 73) of the Democrats and Mitch McConnell (71 ) , the head of the Republican minority faction – had discussed a transitional solution for both problems on Tuesday : With the proposal, the government and 15 were December ability to act , and the debt limit would to 7 February raised. It was cautiously optimistic to reach an agreement by Wednesday, employees Reid and McConnell explained .
However, the situation is confused in the Republican- dominated House of Representatives . There was the Republican Parliament President John Boehner (63 ) develop two versions of a bill , one with the same data, such as the Senate bill . Ultimately put Boehner on Tuesday but not the draft to a vote , fearing rejection from their own ranks . The radical Tea Party supporters in his party make his life very difficult at present . For them, a compromise is nothing more than weakness .
The financial world increasingly reacts negatively to the back and forth in Washington. The New York Stock Exchange fell by 133 points. The rating agency Fitch said , given the budget dispute and its consequences, it is studying a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating .
