CORRECT: Democrats seek Senate debate on debt limit - MarketWatch

CORRECT: Democrats seek Senate debate on debt limit - MarketWatch: "Mar 3, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Senators will have to vote in coming weeks to boost the federal government's debt limit in order to avoid default, setting the stage for a debate over President Bush's fiscal stewardship.

Treasury Department officials told Senate staff members that the federal government would hit its statutory borrowing limit of $8.184 trillion some time during the week of March 20, news reports said.

'We don't have any scheduled debate on this. And I don't frankly think that the [Republican] leadership wants to schedule a debate on whether we should and the degree to which we should increase the federal debt,' said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. 'And I think the reason is pretty clear. It's because it's embarrassing.'

The House has already passed a $781 billion increase in the debt limit. "