Obama signs debt-limit measures

President Barack Obama signed bills raising the nation’s debt limit and scaling back benefit cuts for US military retirees, taking two issues with economic implications out of the spotlight ahead of November’s elections.

Obama, spending the weekend in California, signed the legislation without comment.

The increase in the debt limit into March 2015 cleared the House and Senate last week with no conditions attached to it in a victory for Obama.

The measure likely delays the need for another increase until mid-2015 because income-tax payments will postpone the date that the government exhausts its borrowing authority.

The partial reversal of cost-of-living adjustments that reduce military pensions comes only two months after lawmakers included the cuts in a budget deal. Veterans groups mounted a public lobbying campaign to undo the changes, and the bill that Congress passed last week meets part of their demands.

Obama travelled to California on February 14 and is staying with friends at Sunnylands, the Annenberg retreat in Rancho Mirage. The night he arrived he hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Cruz effort

The final Senate vote on February 12 that sent the debt-ceiling measure to Obama came after Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and a favourite of the small government Tea Party movement, was thwarted in an effort to block the increase through procedural moves.

Senate Republican leaders rejected the tactic, and enough party members joined with Democrats, who control the chamber, to allow the debt-limit increase to come up for a vote. — Bloomberg