WASHINGTON — Last summer’s fierce political debate over raising the federal debt limit cost taxpayers more than $1 billion in extra borrowing costs, including hundreds of hours in overtime for federal employees responsible for avoiding default, according to a new government report.
Delays in raising the debt limit forced the Treasury Department to pay an extra $1.3 billion in borrowing costs — and the final sum is expected to climb higher as multi-year obligations and other outstanding costs are added later, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday.
The costs came as the Treasury suspended investments in several funds for federal employees, postal workers and other reserves in order to pay the nation’s financial obligations as policymakers squabbled over raising the debt limit. More money was later spent to restore the funds after the debt limit increased, the GAO said.
The report concluded that “Congress should consider ways to better link decisions about the debt limit with decisions about spending and revenue to avoid potential disruptions to the Treasury market and to help inform the fiscal policy debate in a timely way.”
Lawmakers agreed last summer to raise the federal debt limit to $16.4 trillion, a $2.1 trillion increase that came with an agreement to cut a similar amount in federal spending over the next decade beginning in January. Both parties are now seeking alternative spending-cut plans in order to avoid steep cuts in military and non-defense spending.
In response to months of acrimonious debate, Standard & Poor’s dropped the nation’s AAA credit rating and blamed “political brinkmanship” for making the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances “less stable, less effective and less predictable.”
The fighting also spurred thousands of hours in extra work for the Bureau of Public Debt, the tiny agency responsible for diverting funds in order to avoid exceeding the debt limit. Workers spent almost 5,570 hours working to avoid a default, including 1,200 hours in the weeks before the deadline “for meetings, preparation of parallel accounts and spreadsheets to use in tracking uninvested principal and interest losses, tests of the accounting system and training staff,” according to the GAO.
Then, the GAO said. the office spent another 500 hours restoring the uninvested funds and preparing reports, while putting off other oversight duties and staff training programs.
This wasn’t even about spending. It was about paying off our bills that already existed.
The time has come to end all political parties, people should run on their merritts and beliefs. The amount of money that is pumped into the political parties is just mind boggling, political office has became a way of life for these politicals, the system was not set up to be a lifetime in office. It was to the people, by the people, for the people so everyone can have a say in their government.
The interest on the Obama debt alone will cost us more than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Stop spending and stop borrowing.
Good answer but you forgot that there needs to be a revenue increase also, and until these idiots in Congress sit down and have a serious discussion with everything on the table no problems will be solved.
How much of our tax money was paid for all the overtime payroll? We the people are getting fleeced once again. No more lengthy terms in office for anyone. Term Limit is seriously needed. Political parties pitted against each other accomplish only hate and costly bickering.
Biased media also contribute to the decay of this country. We the people deserve better, especially when it is our tax dollars paying their salaries.
The GOP would like us to believe this is about debt and guiding our country, it isn’t. It’s about a bunch of white guys who have framed the President as a socialist from Kenya who isn’t a US citizen and they refuse to be led by him, that’s the only thing it’s about and the GOP proves it every day.
The methane gas in the SWAMP has affected you brain……
apparently those wearing the oversize clown shoes who are members of the current clown squad are incapable of anything other then personal attacks?
The Party of NO is costing us money as well as other downers. Out with the Tea party, ALECs, Norquists, etc.