US To Bollow Yet Another 32 Billions

The government will raise $32 billion next week as part of a total of $63 billion in borrowing planned for the final three months of this year, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.

The government said next week's borrowing, known as a quarterly refunding, would consist of $19 billion in three-year notes auctioned on Nov. 1 and $13 billion in 10-year notes auctioned on Nov. 2.

The rest of the borrowing needs for the quarter will be accomplished through other debt auctions including the regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month bills.

The $63 billion in borrowing planned for this quarter was $41 billion lower than an estimate made in July. The government attributed the improvement in part to an unexpected flood of tax revenues in recent months.

However, the improvement is expected to be temporary. Treasury is projecting that the government will need to borrow a record $175 billion in the first three months of 2007 as the federal budget deficit resumes an upward climb.

The government is required to borrow billions of dollars each week to finance the shortfall between tax collections and spending. Part of that money goes to pay the interest on the national debt, which now stands at $8.48 trillion.

The deficit for the just-completed 2006 budget year dropped to a four-year low of $247.7 billion as both revenues and spending climbed to all-time highs.

President Bush gave credit for the improvement to his first-term tax cuts, which helped to get the country out of a recession.

But Democrats charged that Bush's tax cuts wiped out huge projected surpluses and have left the country in worse shape financially as the government prepares for the retirement of 78 million baby boomers.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

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