Congress completes $984 billion borrowing boost, largest ever

WASHINGTON -- Congress is sending President Bush a record $984 billion boost in the government's authority to borrow money.

The Republican-led Senate's approval in a largely party-line, 53-44 vote Friday completed Congress' work on a measure that will let lawmakers avoid the politically sensitive issue until next year, when another increase in borrowing authority will be necessary.

Congress had breached the current $6.4 trillion limit on borrowing early this year, and the government has averted an unprecedented default only by having the Treasury Department shift money from various funds it oversees.

The vote had strong partisan overtones, with Democrats trying to link the need for vast new government borrowing to the record annual deficits that have emerged under Bush. Approval came just hours after lawmakers approved $330 billion in tax cuts through 2013.

"That we have to borrow even more money to pay for (Republicans') failed economic agenda ... is proof positive that their latest tax package is on the wrong economic track," Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., said.

GOP senators defeated a pile of Democratic amendments, knowing that passage of any would have forced the House, which had passed the bill in an automatic procedure last month, to reconsider the bill and prolong the chance for Democrats to draw attention to the issue.

Democratic amendments included one that would have limited the debt increase to the same size as the tax bill, and forced Congress to consider new borrowing sometime this fall.

"It's nothing but political gamesmanship," Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said of the Democratic efforts.

This year's deficit is expected to exceed $300 billion for the first time, and shortfalls are projected into the future for as far as analysts can see.

The government ran four consecutive surpluses at the end of the Clinton administration. Republicans blame the faltering economy and the costs of confronting terrorism for the break in that pattern.

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada was the only Republican to oppose the debt limit extension. Sens. John Breaux of Louisiana and Zell Miller of Georgia were the only Democrats to support it, as did Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D-N.C., missed the vote.

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The bill is H.J. Res. 51.