NATIONAL DEBT/STEVE MNUCHIN/TREASURY: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Monday [8-21-17] there was ‘zero chance’ that the U.S. would fail to raise the federal debt ceiling.
Mr. McConnell expressed confidence in Congress’s ability to avoid missing federal payments in advance of a legislative sprint in September that will also address expiring government funding and several other pressing items.
‘There is zero chance, no chance we won’t raise the debt ceiling,’ he said at an event in his hometown, Louisville, Ky., with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Mr. Mnuchin said his ‘magic super Treasury powers’ that allow the government to conserve cash and avoid issuing new debt will run out at the end of September.
The Treasury Department has been employing cash-conservation measures since March, when the previous suspension of the debt limit expired and the new ceiling was set at nearly $20 trillion.”
-Richard Rubin and Kate Davidson, “Mitch McConnell: ‘Zero Chance’ U.S. Fails to Raise Debt Ceiling,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 21, 2017 04:19pm