Obama to sign short-term debt limit bill: White House

 　　WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua)-- The White House on Tuesday said they welcomed the House Republicans' proposal of a short-term extension of debt limit and the President would sign the bill if it could reach his desk.

　　White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a news briefing that U. S. President Barack Obama would prefer a long-term raising of the debt limit, but the GOP's shift from their hard-line stance was " certainly something that we welcome.""We want to see the debt ceiling sort of removed from the process of the very important debates that we have over what we pay for, how much revenue we bring in, how we get our fiscal¹ house in order," said Carney. "What happened ... was a very significant development in terms of de-escalating the sense of conflict over this."While cautioning that the bill has to overcome some concerns expressed by members of the House and the Senate before it can pass both chambers² and reach the President's desk, Carney said Obama would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law.

　　The United States has already reached its 16.4-trillion-dollar debt limit, and the Treasury³ Department has said it could run out of extraordinary measures to pay the government bills by mid- February.

　　Top Republican lawmakers said Friday that the House would vote on a bill this week to extend the nation's borrowing authority by three months in order to force the Senate to pass a budget to cut government outlays⁴. They have backed down from the demand that any debt ceiling increase be accompanied by comparable spending cuts.

　　The bill, which is likely to be approved by the House Wednesday, would extend government borrowing authority until May, and set a deadline for the House and Senate to pass a formal budget.

1 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

2 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

3 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

4 outlays   

v.支出，费用( outlay的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They report substantial slashes in this year's defense outlays. 他们报道今年度国防经费的大量削减。 来自辞典例句
• For MU, there were no upfront risks or cash outlays. 对摩托罗拉大学而言，没有风险或现金费用。 来自互联网