NATION : Treasury to Borrow $17 Billion
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WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said today it will borrow $17 billion on an emergency basis early next week so it can pay Social Security benefits to 38.9 million retirees and avert an unprecedented government default.
Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady said the emergency borrowing will enable monthly Social Security checks to go out on schedule Nov. 3 regardless of whether Congress breaks a deadlock and passes an increase in the national debt limit.
Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) denounced the emergency action as “obviously a transparent political move to enhance the effort to get a capital-gains tax cut. There apparently is no limit to what they’ll do” to reach that goal.
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