House Backs Debt Limit Hike, Sends To Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to increase the government's borrowing authority to $14.3 trillion, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

By a vote of 233 to 187, the House voted to raise the nation's debt limit by $1.9 trillion, which will probably allow lawmakers to avoid revisiting the politically toxic issue before November congressional elections.

The Senate passed the bill last week. No Republicans voted for the measure in either chamber.

Mindful of a growing voter backlash over government spending, Democrats crafted the legislation to require that new spending be offset elsewhere in the budget.

Such "pay as you go" legislation helped the country turn budget deficits into surpluses in the 1990s, Democratic leaders said.

"This is one of those things that has the benefit of being both symbolically and substantively beneficial," former President Bill Clinton told fellow Democrats on a conference call.

Obama hailed the passage of the bill, and in a statement said the "pay as you go" provision "will help usher out an era of irresponsibility and begin putting the country back on a fiscally sustainable path."

Congress has periodically raised the legal limit for the government's borrowing and the Treasury Department is expected within weeks to exceed the current $12.4 trillion limit set in December.

Failure to raise the limit would roil financial markets, but lawmakers are never eager to sign off on a measure that allows the government to dig itself deeper into debt.

"Our creditors around the world on whom we are now relying in order to fund our government don't really care about our partisan politics," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. "They do care however about the will that we have to meet our responsibilities, to pay our bills."

But that did not stop Democrats and Republicans from blaming each other for the country's rapidly spiraling debt load, which has more than doubled over the past decade.

EXCHANGING BLAME

Democrats pointed to the tax cuts, pricey prescription-drug benefit and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pursued under former Republican President George W. Bush.

Republicans criticized the aggressive spending measures Democrats have taken to blunt the impact of the deepest economic downturn in 70 years.

"They took out a monster loan that is not paying off," said Republican Representative Pete Sessions.

The government spent a record $1.4 trillion more than it collected in the past fiscal year, and the White House expects that this year's deficit will be even worse.

Experts warn that investors could demand higher interest rates on U.S. debt if Obama and Congress do not get deficits under control.

Obama plans to set up a commission to figure out ways to reduce the deficit, but Republicans have indicated that they might not cooperate because they view it as a ploy to raise taxes.

Democrats said paygo will also help Congress stay within its means by requiring new spending programs or tax cuts to be offset by tax increase or spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. But it would not apply to existing programs like Social Security and Medicare that are projected to eat up an increasing portion of the budget over the coming decade, and lawmakers could set the rule aside for spending designated an unforeseen emergency, such as relief to Haiti.