Barack Obama asked the US Congress to increase the national debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion. The corresponding letter was sent by the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate on Thursday, January 12. This was reported by Reuters .

“To meet our obligations, we need to increase borrowing,” the letter says. The proposed increase in the limit would raise the national debt ceiling to $16.394 billion. Congress has 15 days to respond to the president's request.

It is expected that a repeat of the drama of last summer, when Republicans for several months blocked an increase in the budget borrowing limit, should not happen.

Let us remember that the limit was then raised just a few days before the United States would have had to declare a technical default. The political crisis in Washington was one of the reasons why S&P downgraded the credit rating of the world's largest economy from the maximum "AAA", which lasted about 70 years, to "AA".

“This is a routine procedure, we do not expect delays,” a representative of the staff of the relevant Senate committee told RIA Novosti , assuring that this time Congress will approve the increase in the national debt without delay.

However, as Reuters notes, Republicans will make continued borrowing one of the main points of criticism of Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential campaign. Especially against the backdrop of failed negotiations to reduce the budget deficit.

Obama asks Congress to raise the debt ceiling again