Wall Street Journal
written by Henry J. Pulizzi and Corey Boles
Friday February 12, 2010, 3:35pm ET
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama signed a $1.9 trillion increase in the federal government's borrowing limit into law Friday, the White House said.
The debt-limit boost, passed last week by the House of Representatives, brings the total amount the federal government can borrow to $14.3 trillion and will allow the government to function for the rest of the year.
Though the increase represents money ALREADY SPENT by the Treasury Department, it comes as lawmakers struggle to convince voters that they are taking steps to address the record budget deficit, which is on course to reach $1.6 trillion in the current fiscal year.
To address concerns over spending, the law Obama signed Friday also imposes a rule requiring any new mandatory spending to be offset by spending cuts or new revenue elsewhere in the budget.
Known as "pay-as-you-go" or "Paygo," the rule was in place during the 1990s, the last time there was a federal budget surplus.
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The Hill
written by Michael O'Brien
Monday December 28, 2009 04:21 PM ET
President Barack Obama signed into law on Monday new legislation raising the nation's debt ceiling.
Obama signed H.R. 4314, a bill to increase the amount of debt legally allowed to be held by the U.S. government, during his vacation in Hawaii.
The legislation, which was approved by the House and the Senate in the waning days of their December sessions, increases the ceiling by $290 billion to a total legal limit of $12.394 trillion.
Republicans allowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to hold the debt vote and schedule it early on Christmas Eve in exchange for votes on several prize GOP measures next year, including an effort to end the $700 billion bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Obama signed two other bills into law, one of which extends the government's authority to pay out "claims in excess of what is covered by required insurance for catastrophic damages arising out of a licensed commercial space launch or reentry," as well as a law extending trade benefits to developing nations.
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