About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (July 5, 2002)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaaakr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21 111 Updated July 5, 2002 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web The Debt Limit: The Need to Raise It After Four Years of Surpluses Philip D. Winters Analyst in Government Finance Government and Finance Division Summary Increases in total federal debt are driven by government deficits (which increase debt held by the public) and by the surpluses credited to (and federal accounting for) debt-holding federal accounts, mostly federal trust funds such as the Social Security, Medicare, Transportation, and Civil Service trust funds. Government deficits increase debt held by the public; government surpluses reduce debt held by the public. The government surpluses over the last four fiscal years (1998- 2001) reduced debt held by the public by $448 billion. The surpluses credited to debt- holding government accounts (which generally must invest the surpluses in federal debt), increased their holdings by $853 billion over the same period. The combination increased total federal debt by $405 billion. During FY2002 (through May 31, 2002), total debt subject to limit increased another $217 billion. The increases lifted federal debt to the then current statutory debt limit, $5.95 trillion, twice in 2002, most recently in mid-May 2002. Since December 2001, the Administration repeatedly asked Congress to increase the $5.95 trillion debt ceiling by $750 billion. The Senate passed a $450 billion increase (S. 2578) on June 11; the House approved the bill on June 27 (by one vote). The President signed the legislation on June 28 (P.L. 107-199) raising the limit to $6.4 trillion, ending the most recent debt limit crisis. (This report will be updated as events warrant.) The statutory debt limit applies to almost all federal debt.' It applies to federal debt held by the public, that is debt held outside the federal government itself, and to federal debt held by the government's own accounts, almost all of which are federal trust funds such as Social Security, Medicare, Transportation, and Civil Service. The government's 1 When measured on a similar basis, just over one percent of total federal debt is excluded from debt limit coverage. On the last day of June 2002, total federal debt was $6.126 trillion; debt subject to limit was $6.058 trillion, 98.9% of the total debt. Congressional Research Service **** The Library of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most