"I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012," he wrote in a letter to Congress, "and to notify you that the Treasury Department will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations."
Such measures, he said, can create some $200 billion in headroom under the debt limit, which would buy a couple months' time under normal circumstances. However, because of the impending "fiscal cliff," the effect of such measures can't be certain, he wrote.
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image: © U.S. Embassy New Delhi
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