Debt ceiling D-Day remains Aug. 2, Treasury Department says

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The Treasury Department reaffirmed that Aug. 2 is still the projected date that the nation would breach its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

The date had moved several times before the Treasury settled on the Aug. 2 deadline back in May. Some Republicans have been skeptical that the date would not move again, but a top Treasury official said Friday the projections remained the same.

“The Treasury Department continues to project that the United States will exhaust its borrowing authority under the debt limit on August 2, 2011,’ said Mary Miller, assistant secretary for financial markets.

She added that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner ‘urges Congress to avoid the catastrophic economic and market consequences of a default crisis by raising the statutory debt limit in a timely manner.”

The nation technically reached its debt ceiling on May 16, but Treasury officials have been engaged in complex financial juggling to postpone the consequences. Administration officials now are pushing to complete a deal to raise the limit with congressional Republicans by July 22 to allow for enough time to pass the legislation before Aug. 2.

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-- Jim Puzzanghera