The push to raise the debt ceiling, albeit temporarily, comes on the heels of the House's passing last week of a 1 trillion dollar spending bill that covered the budgets of nearly a dozen cabinet agencies for 2010.
A number of other spending bills have drawn fire from fiscal conservatives, including February's 787 billion dollar stimulus bill and the 3 billion dollars for 'cash for clunkers' -- a program meant to boost auto sales by providing economic incentives to Americans to purchase new vehicles.
Opponents of Congress' spending note that unemployment, while falling slightly in recent weeks, stands at around 10 percent, the highest in more than two decades. And the unemployment rate -- a measure of part time workers who would prefer full-time work -- stands at around 17 percent, although that too has lessened slightly.
Republicans also fear that Congress' spending will lead to tax hikes, although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said tax increases are not written in stone.
Other problems could result as well, such as a reduction in U.S. credit worthiness.
Lachman said, in a worst case scenario, the bond market could dump U.S. bonds, making it increasingly difficult for the United States to borrow money.
Moody's Investor Services had previously warned the United States' AAA credit rating could be downgraded, although the organization said this week the U.S. was out of the danger zone and that it had no plans to revise U.S. credit ratings.
While Republicans and fiscal conservatives said the forecast 9 trillion dollar deficit was a huge number, others said the figure could be reined in with a combination of tax increases and spending cuts down the road.
Some experts also maintain that those figures must be viewed in context. European Union nations such as Italy, France and Sweden incurred a much higher debt load during the early to mid 1990s.
U.S. senate passes $1.1 trillion spending package for fiscal year 2010
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate passed on Sunday a 1.1-trillion-U.S. dollars spending package for fiscal year 2010, except for the Defense Department.
The Democratic-controlled Senate approved the bill at a vote of 57-35. The year-end package that covers about half of all federal programs, now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. Full story
U.S. House passes financial regulatory overhaul
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed on Friday the most sweeping financial regulatory overhaul in more than 70 years, a crucial step for one of the Obama administration's key reforms.
The legislation, passed by a vote of 223-202, was designed to address the shortfalls that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s. Full story
U.S. Treasury gains $936 mln from JPMorgan warrants
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday that it has received 936.1 million U.S. dollars from the sale of warrants of JPMorgan Chase & Co., a bank that obtained government support during last year's financial crisis.
The Treasury said it sold more than 88.4 million warrants in an auction Thursday at a price of 10.75 dollars each. Full story
GDP rise not sure sign of sustained recovery in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Though the U.S. GDP rise in the third quarter was an encouraging 2.8 percent, the best in two years, the expansion did not necessarily bode sure well for a sustained recovery in the country.
The GDP rise came after four consecutive quarters of contraction, 2.7 percent and 5.4 percent in the third and fourth quarters of last year and 6.4 percent and 0.7 percent in the first two quarters of this year. Full story
Obama seeks bipartisan job-boosting effort
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday called for bipartisan cooperation on his newly-launched job-creating plan in a obviously divided political sentiment.
"It's no secret that there's been less than full bipartisan support for the Recovery Act and some of the steps that have broken the freefall of our economy," Obama said after meeting with congressional Democrats and Republicans. Full story
Obama to extend bailout funds
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Obama administration is expected to extend the life of the 700 billion U.S. dollar financial bailout fund until next October, administration officials said on Tuesday.
One official said the administration was likely to pledge to use no more than 560 billion dollars from the fund. Another said the plan would be to tap the program to help homeowners secure mortgages through the government's housing program and to free up credit for small businesses to spur job growth. Full story
Obama vows to create new jobs and lay foundation for robust growth
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama outlined on Tuesday a new job-creating plan to tackle the country's major threat -- the double-digit unemployment. Full story
Yearender: U.S. financial regulatory reform, a test for the future
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- As the world closely watching, the U.S. financial regulatory overhaul is in the process of legislation. Important and complicated, the reform derived from the still unfolding impact of crisis tests the future of the financial structure not only domestically, but also globally.
Since the U.S. Treasury Department proposed its financial regulatory plan to the Congress this summer, when the U.S. economy was still in deep recession, key players of the reform, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairwoman Sheila Bair, have frequently made remarks on the issue. Full story
New York Fed chief: U.S. economy to grow moderately in 2010
NEW YORK, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- William Dudley, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, said on Monday that the U.S. economy is likely to see a moderate growth in 2010.
"The situation is slowly improving. We are having a recovery in terms of output and the pace of job losses has slowed substantially," Dudley said at the Columbia University World Leaders Forum in New York. Full story
