Divided Senate Boosts Limit on Federal Debt

The Senate approved an $800-billion increase in the federal debt limit Wednesday, a major boost in borrowing that Sen. John F. Kerry and other Democrats said was the result of President Bush’s fiscal policies.

The mostly party-line 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage today. Enactment would raise the government’s borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion -- more than eight times the total federal debt that existed when President Reagan took office in 1981.

In his first remarks on the Senate floor since his presidential bid ended in defeat two weeks ago, Kerry said his former opponent had presided over “the worst fiscal turnaround in our nation’s entire history.”

He was referring to the change from the $5.6 trillion in surpluses that were projected for the next 10 years when Bush took office in 2001, to the $2.3 trillion in deficits estimated for the coming decade.

Kerry and other Democrats complained that those bills would have to be paid by future generations.

“This can be called a birth tax, a birth tax that is dumped on the back of every American child unwillingly,” said Kerry, who voted against the borrowing increase.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California, both Democrats, voted against the bill.

Republican senators did not join in the debate, underscoring how politically uncomfortable the measure was for them.

Administration officials urged lawmakers to act quickly. The government reached its $7.38-trillion borrowing cap last month. Since then the Treasury Department has paid federal bills by taking cash from a civil service retirement account, which it plans to repay.

“We are nearing the end of our rope, and it is critical that Congress act,” Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling could force a federal default and leave the government unable to pay Social Security recipients, federal workers and other obligations.

The Senate’s debt-limit vote came as congressional bargainers used the lame-duck session to continue writing a $388-billion spending measure to finance scores of agencies over the next 10 months.

That package -- a combination of nine spending bills -- will finance the heart of the government’s domestic programs, everything except the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. The measures were supposed to be approved by Oct. 1, when the government’s budget year began.