Treasury says debt limit will hit sooner than expected

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

America's date with the debt limit just got moved up. Technically, the U.S. government hit that limit — the statutory cap on how much total debt it can have outstanding — back in mid-March. But in a dance that's become standard procedure recently, the Treasury Department can use a grab bag of financial delaying tactics to provide a grace period. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew previously said that bag of tricks would run out on Nov. 5.

Well, scratch that: Now he says we'll run out Nov. 3.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.