According the Huffington Post Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the nation’s debt limit won’t be raised unless Republicans can extract concessions from Democrats and President Barack Obama.
The borrowing limit, which was suspended until Feb. 7, 2014, as part of the deal to end the government shutdown in the fall, stands at about $17.2 trillion. The Treasury Department estimates that without a hike, it can keep paying the nation’s bills only until sometime in March.
The budget agreement that passed the House overwhelmingly last week and is set for passage in the Senate — likely on Wednesday — would also require a boost in the debt ceiling in order to carry out the spending that it mandates. But McConnell said Republicans would not allow that. More…