{"id":347024,"date":"2011-03-29T11:57:05","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T11:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/29\/washingtons-budget-bomb-clock-is-ticking\/"},"modified":"2011-03-29T11:57:05","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T11:57:05","slug":"washingtons-budget-bomb-clock-is-ticking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/29\/washingtons-budget-bomb-clock-is-ticking\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington&#8217;s budget bomb: Clock is ticking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"110.99429987608\">    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/4e7ac909rush.gi_.top_.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"budget_rush.gi.top.jpg\" width=\"475\" height=\"254\" border=\"0\" class=\"cnnstoryImageFull\" \/><span><b>Congress has a lot to do in the next week or so. Top of the list: Pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown.<\/b><\/span><!-- \/PURGE: \/2011\/03\/28\/news\/economy\/federal_budget\/budget_rush.gi.top.jpg --><span id=\"fb-recommend\"\/><br \/>\n<span>By Charles Riley, staff reporter<\/span><span>March 29, 2011: 7:52 AM ET<\/span><!--startclickprintexclude--><br clear=\"all\"\/><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; Congress is facing a busy couple of weeks. Really busy. <\/p>\n<p>And like teenagers with focus problems, lawmakers are racing against the clock because they waited until the last minute to turn in their big assignments. <\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s ahead: <\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Find a way to fund the government beyond April 8. If Republicans and Democrats <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com\/2011\/03\/28\/budget-talks-at-impasse-raising-concerns-of-possible-government-shutdown\/\">can&#8217;t strike a deal<\/a>, the government will shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Start considering a budget for 2012. (Yes, at the same time they try to wrap up 2011.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Move toward a vote to raise the debt ceiling. The Treasury Department will update lawmakers &#8212; as early as this week &#8212; about how much time they have before the ceiling is reached.<\/p>\n<p>For the moment, uncertainty is the only thing that&#8217;s certain.<\/p>\n<p>2011 budget<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the skinny on the 2011 budget: There isn&#8217;t one. Lawmakers have instead passed six short-term spending bills. The latest expires on April 8.<\/p>\n<p>The best case scenario is that Congress passes a six-month bill that would cover the remainder of the fiscal year. Or they could cobble together another short-term extension. (<a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/03\/24\/news\/economy\/budget_federal_agencies\/index.htm\">Read how short-term fixes impact agencies<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>If lawmakers don&#8217;t pass some kind of extension, the government will shut down. (<a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/02\/21\/news\/economy\/government_shutdown\/index.htm\">Read what a government shutdown would mean<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers spent last week in their home districts, and by all accounts, senior members of both parties tried to reach a compromise on 2011 spending. Apparently that didn&#8217;t work out so well, as lawmakers were back to throwing partisan bombs on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>This is basically where things stand: Republicans want to cut spending. Tea Party types <i>really<\/i> want to cut <i><a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/02\/18\/news\/economy\/budget_cuts_2011\/index.htm\">a lot<\/a><\/i> of spending. Democrats are willing to give a little, but kinda like spending levels where they are.<\/p>\n<p>At the moment, the two sides are billions of dollars apart. Clock&#8217;s ticking!<\/p>\n<p>2012 budget<\/p>\n<p>As if to draw attention to its failure to pass a budget in 2011, Congress will kick off the 2012 budget process next week when House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, introduces his 2012 budget proposal.<\/p>\n<p>This deadline isn&#8217;t quite as pressing. Lawmakers have until Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, to do their constitutional duty and pass a budget.<\/p>\n<p>If the process <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/03\/11\/news\/economy\/budget_crisis_congress\/index.htm\">works as designed<\/a>, once Ryan reveals his target spending levels, appropriations committees will hammer out spending plans to fit. The result will be 12 separate appropriations bills. <\/p>\n<p>Congress will vote on each, and move them to the president&#8217;s desk. <\/p>\n<p>For 2012, there will be an added twist. Ryan is planning to include some sort of entitlement reform in his plan. And that&#8217;s a potential sticking point. Programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are driving projected long-term debt higher &#8212; but are cherished, and will require a mountain of political will to reform.<\/p>\n<p>Debt limit<\/p>\n<p>As if they needed another threat &#8212; and this is a biggie &#8212; the Treasury Department is expected to give Congress an update in the first few days of April as to when the United States will run up against the <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/03\/17\/news\/economy\/debt_ceiling_spending\/index.htm\">debt ceiling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Treasury&#8217;s last estimate put the deadline between April 15 and May 31.<\/p>\n<p>If the ceiling is not raised, Treasury will not be allowed to borrow and therefore will not be able to pay the country&#8217;s bills in full without taking drastic measures to cut spending or raise taxes.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, Congress has always ended up raising the cap, if sometimes at the last minute. And some policy experts think they will do so again, but there&#8217;s no guarantee precedent will hold.<\/p>\n<p>Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has warned lawmakers that even a short-term breach of the ceiling could have devastating implications.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/03\/28\/news\/economy\/federal_budget\/index.htm?section=money_topstories&#038;utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29#TOP\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/0e63013ebug.gif\" alt=\"To top of page\" border=\"0\" width=\"7\" height=\"7\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/4e7ac909rush.gi_.top_.jpg-150x150.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read the original:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/money_topstories\/~3\/rwXYM4XqBQA\/index.htm\" title=\"Washington's budget bomb: Clock is ticking\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington&#8217;s budget bomb: Clock is ticking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Congress has a lot to do in the next week or so. Top of the list: Pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown. By Charles Riley, staff reporter March 29, 2011: 7:52 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; Congress is facing a busy couple of weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Washington&#039;s budget bomb: Clock is ticking - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/29\/washingtons-budget-bomb-clock-is-ticking\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Washington&#039;s budget bomb: Clock is ticking - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Congress has a lot to do in the next week or so. 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