President Obama has
formally requested a debt limit increase of $1.2 trillion in a
letter to House Speaker John Boehner [pdf] today.
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Pursuant to section 3101A(a)(2)(A) of title 31, United States Code, I hereby certify that the debt subject to limit is within $100,000,000,000 of the limit in 31 U.S.C. 3101(b) and that further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
The White House had postponed this formal request, in a gesture of goodwill to a Congress that didn't want to have to end vacation (although they are supposedly "in session") in order to meet the 15-day deadline the formal request triggers.
You remember how all this happened, right? The whole debt-ceiling hostage-taking deal that Republicans ultimately agreed to was that the debt limit would be automatically increased in three stages and at each stage the Republicans would have the option of voting to block the increase by passing a "resolution of disapproval." Except, of course, there aren't enough of them to override a presidential veto of their disapproval, so it's all symbolic.
So the debt limit will be increased, probably with nary a whimper from Republicans. Well, they'll whimper and they'll bluster around about how awful debt is and they'll get to have their purely symbolic vote of disapproval of the whole thing. But they won't take any more economically disastrous hostages, not in an election year and with their disapproval numbers.