[ti:What Is the US Debt Limit?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:02.36]American President Joe Biden again asked Congress
[00:06.64]to lift the United States debt limit
[00:09.52]after a meeting Wednesday with the nation’s business leaders.
[00:14.40]The White House Council of Economic Advisors
[00:17.76]warned before the meeting that the United States government
[00:22.16]will default on its obligations
[00:24.84]if Congress does not raise the debt limit by October 18.
[00:30.60]A default is a failure to meet the legal obligations of a loan.
[00:36.08]The council said millions of Americans
[00:38.96]might not receive their payments
[00:41.36]from Social Security and government healthcare.
[00:45.40]A default could also affect national defense and pandemic services.
[00:52.20]Since many countries depend on the U.S. monetary policy,
[00:56.28]it said a default “would likely cause credit markets worldwide
[01:01.52]to freeze up and stock markets to plunge.
[01:07.08]Employers around the world
[01:09.04]would likely have to begin laying off workers.”
[01:13.20]Like some of us, governments sometimes
[01:16.16]spend more money than they receive from taxes.
[01:20.72]So, they have to borrow money by issuing bonds,
[01:25.28]or debts, to be repaid later.
[01:29.84]In the U.S., Congress has the power to set a debt limit.
[01:35.28]It is “the maximum amount of debt
[01:38.04]that the Department of the Treasury can issue to the public
[01:41.88]or to other federal agencies.”
[01:45.76]Since 1960, Congress has changed the debt limit 78 times
[01:51.64]under both Republican and Democratic administrations
[01:55.88]to pay for government operations.
[01:59.52]Raising the debt limit does not mean
[02:02.00]that Treasury has more money to spend.
[02:05.48]It only permits the U.S. government
[02:08.08]to “finance existing legal obligations.”
[02:12.80]When the limit is reached,
[02:14.80]the Treasury cannot issue more debt or borrow more money.
[02:20.00]In August 2019, the U.S. Congress passed a budget deal,
[02:25.28]with support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers,
[02:30.20]that raised spending and suspended the debt limit for two years.
[02:36.16]Under the agreement, the money borrowed
[02:38.64]during the suspension of the debt limit
[02:41.16]will be added to the previous limit of $22 trillion.
[02:46.80]An additional $6.5 trillion had been borrowed
[02:51.60]since the 2019 tax cuts and pandemic spending,
[02:56.60]raising the nation’s debt limit to $28.5 trillion.
[03:03.12]The Congressional Budget Office estimated
[03:06.48]that the federal government
[03:08.00]has a deficit of $2.7 trillion for the budget year
[03:12.88]ending in September 2021.
[03:16.68]The government also ran up deficits each year from 2016 to 2020.
[03:23.24]Technically, the U.S. has already reached its debt limit
[03:26.76]at the end of July as agreed to in the 2019 budget deal.
[03:32.80]Once the debt limit is reached,
[03:34.88]the U.S. cannot borrow more money to pay its bills.
[03:39.12]But Treasury could and has used “extraordinary measures”
[03:43.92]like delaying some payments to employees’ retirement funds
[03:47.64]to avoid a default.
[03:50.64]Unless Congress acts to raise the debt limit,
[03:54.08]the Bipartisan Policy Center
[03:56.60]projects that the U.S. will most likely reach the limit
[04:00.28]between October 15 and November 4.
[04:05.04]The center added that a default would likely raise borrowing costs
[04:09.92]as investors will demand a higher rate of return on U.S. debts.
[04:15.80]Even a short-term default, it said,
[04:18.56]could also threaten the country’s current economic recovery.
[04:23.48]Before World War I, the U.S. Congress
[04:26.72]permitted borrowing only for special reasons,
[04:29.72]such as the building of the Panama Canal.
[04:33.48]In 1917, Congress passed a law that set a debt limit.
[04:38.48]It gave Treasury some flexibility
[04:41.12]in dealing with the national debt to pay for the war.
[04:45.80]The U.S. is one of few countries around the world with a debt limit.
[04:51.20]Denmark is often noted as another developed country with a debt limit.
[04:56.96]But Denmark often sets its borrowing limit so high
[05:00.48]that a default is not really possible.
[05:04.60]For many years in the U.S., raising the debt limit was not an issue.
[05:10.88]The Republican Party has since only supported increase
[05:15.36]while it has controlled the White House.
[05:19.24]It has argued against raising the limit
[05:22.00]under Democratic administrations.
[05:25.72]Earlier this year, Democratic Congressman Bill Foster of Illinois
[05:30.60]introduced a bill to end the debt limit.
[05:34.44]The bill, however, is not guaranteed
[05:36.92]to pass with the currently divided legislature.
[05:40.88]Late on Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell
[05:44.88]told Democrats he would permit an emergency debt limit extension
[05:50.36]into December to avoid a default.
[05:54.12]If the offer is accepted, the U.S. will have
[05:57.72]to deal with the debt limit again by the end of the year.
[06:02.12]I'm Jill Robbins. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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