{"id":143435,"date":"2019-03-11T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/?p=143435"},"modified":"2019-03-11T10:41:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:41:31","slug":"federal-borrowing-crosses-the-rubicon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2019\/03\/federal-borrowing-crosses-the-rubicon\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Borrowing Crosses the Rubicon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"inves-1874791442\" class=\"inves-below-title-posts inves-entity-placement\"><div id =\"posts_date_custom\"><div align=\"left\">March 11, 2019<\/div><hr style=\"border: none; border-bottom: 3px solid black;\">\r\n<\/div><\/div><p><b>By Money Metals News Service<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A year ago, Republicans in control of Congress suspended the cap on federal borrowing. The limit was automatically re-imposed on March 1st. Politicians now have a few months to hammer out legislation to raise the cap as the Treasury employs &ldquo;extraordinary measures&rdquo; to fend off default.<\/p>\n<p>The federal deficit is mushrooming once again. The 2017 tax cuts have taken a bite out of receipts at the IRS and economic growth has not met expectations.<\/p>\n<p>This year&rsquo;s borrowing to fill the gap between government tax revenue and expenditures may reach a trillion dollars for the first time since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>If Washington politicians follow the usual script, we can expect Republicans to posture as fiscal conservatives and then relent either just before or just after a federal shutdown.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-reponsive content-img-right\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moneymetals.com\/uploads\/content\/congressional-debt-ceiling.jpg\" alt=\"Congressional Debt Ceiling\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Democrats will chastise the GOP for playing politics with America&rsquo;s sacred responsibility to pay its bills.<\/p><div id=\"inves-3155004978\" class=\"inves-in-content inves-entity-placement\"><hr style=\"border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\r\n<div id=\"inpost_ads_header\">\r\n<p style=\"font-size:10px; float:left; color:#666;\">Free Reports:<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div id=\"inpost_ads\"> \r\n<p style=\"font-size:15px; float:left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/1ApBOV\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/investmacro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/graph_techs_PD.png\" align=\"left\" width=\"80\"  height=\"55\"\/><\/a>\r\n\t     <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/1ApBOV\"><b><u>Get Our Free Metatrader 4 Indicators<\/u><\/b><\/a> - Put Our Free MetaTrader 4 Custom Indicators on your charts when you join our Weekly Newsletter<\/p><br><br>\r\n<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:15px; float:left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/f3RrHX\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/investmacro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/cot_pie_80.png\" align=\"left\" width=\"80\"  height=\"55\"\/><\/a>\r\n\t    <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/f3RrHX\"><b><u>Get our Weekly Commitment of Traders Reports<\/u><\/b><\/a> - See where the biggest traders (Hedge Funds and Commercial Hedgers) are positioned in the futures markets on a weekly basis.<\/p><br><br>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<hr style=\"border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\r\n<br><\/div>\n<p>This drama has played out dozens of times over recent decades and is therefore likely to repeat once more this fall.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it won&rsquo;t, though. The Associated Press notes that there just aren&rsquo;t many people in the Capitol who even pretend to care anymore when it comes to deficits.<\/p>\n<p>The AP <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/8f06239173134b3a9da1e1572f4ff10e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quoted former senator<\/a> Judd Gregg from New Hampshire on Sunday: &ldquo;The president doesn&rsquo;t care. The leadership of the Democratic Party doesn&rsquo;t care.&rdquo; He should also have included Republican leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who have reliably supported metastasizing federal debt.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the socialist Left has touted so-called &ldquo;Modern Monetary Theory&rdquo; (MMT) as the mechanism to fund the economy-killing Green New Deal and any and all other government boondoggles. At its core, MMT advocates for perpetual money printing to fund government spending.<\/p>\n<p>There has already been one government shutdown this year. Congress and the President may have another one, for the sake of a bit of theater around the borrowing limit, is not a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>Genuine conservatives in the Republican Senate are few and far between.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump released a portion of his proposed 2020 budget which calls for 5% cuts in non-defense domestic discretionary spending. He is requesting $8.6 billion in funding for a wall.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, he will be vehemently opposed by House Democrats, and many expect Trump to compromise. In any event, should the President&rsquo;s budget be enacted, officials estimate the budget might balance by 2034.<\/p>\n<p>The borrowing cap is going to be raised as always. Even the will to pretend to fight against limits is fading. 2019 may be the year when the fiction of a federal borrowing limit is removed all together.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/articles-analysis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/money-metals.png\" align=\"left\" height=\"79\" width=\"80\"> The Money Metals News Service provides market news and crisp commentary for investors following the precious metals markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Money Metals News Service A year ago, Republicans in control of Congress suspended the cap on federal borrowing. The limit was automatically re-imposed on March 1st. Politicians now have a few months to hammer out legislation to raise the cap as the Treasury employs &ldquo;extraordinary measures&rdquo; to fend off default. The federal deficit is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143436,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143435\/revisions\/143436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}