Debt Ceiling Extension Passes Senate, Bill Heads to Obama's Desk

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation on Thursday authorizing a three-month increase in the nation's debt limit.

The measure cleared the Senate on a vote of 64-34 after winning House approval late last week. It permits the Treasury to borrow above the current $16.4 trillion debt limit through May 18. The White House has said Obama will sign it.

"Failure to pass this bill will set off an unpredictable financial panic that would plunge not only the United States but much of the world back into recession," Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said before the vote. "Every single American would feel the economic impact."

But Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor that "government spending is completely out of control -- and it's projected to get much worse in years to come." His office issued a statement shortly after the vote saying he had opposed the legislation after Democrats torpedoed several GOP attempts to rein in spending before final passage.

The legislation reflects a switch in strategy by Republicans, who have in the past insisted on deep spending cuts as a trade-off for a higher debt limit. With polls showing their public support lagging, they now look ahead to a new season of potential showdowns, with a reshuffled batting order that moves the threat of a default to the back of a line that includes March 1 across-the-board spending cuts and the March 27 expiration of funding for most federal agencies.

The debt limit measure contains a provision that would temporarily withhold the pay of lawmakers in either house that failed to produce a budget this year.

That was designed as a prod to the Senate, where majority Democrats have failed to bring a budget to a vote in any of the past three years. This year, they say they will. Republicans say they are eager for a comparison of plans, rather than a long year spent defending one of their own.

Already, the next conflict over budget priorities is taking shape, in an environment includes a fresh report that the economy declined in the last quarter, and the emergence of a warning from the Pentagon's top uniformed officers that pending defense cuts could lead to a "hollow force."

Without changes, "we will have to ground aircraft, return ships to port, and stop driving combat vehicles in training," members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote congressional leaders in a letter dated Jan. 14.

President Obama and Democrats say they are prepared for further deficit reduction compromise, although they stress they want increased tax revenue as part of any deal.

Republicans want spending cuts only, after reluctantly swallowing $600 billion in higher taxes as part of a "fiscal cliff" compromise late last year.

To further their goals, House Republicans intend to produce a budget that balances in a decade, and are expected to vote as early as next week to demand Obama do the same.

Obama's budget is due to be made public later this month, although there is no expectation it will eliminate red ink in the next 10 years. Nor are majority Democrats in the Senate expected to do so either.

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