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Congress Gets More Time To Debate The Debt Ceiling

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:

NPR's business news starts with more time for a debt deal.

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WERTHEIMER: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is giving Congress a bit more time to work out a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. If the ceiling is not raised, the U.S. could fail to meet some debt obligations, and the consequences could ripple through the economy. Many Republican lawmakers don't want to increase the debt limit unless it's tied to spending cuts. It looks like the government would hit the debt ceiling of more than $14 trillion in July.

But yesterday, the Treasury said more tax money has come in than expected. As a result, the U.S. is not likely to reach the ceiling until three weeks later -sometime in early August. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.