Obama requests 1.2 trillion USD rise in borrowing limit

 　　WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama requested Congress Thursday to raise the federal government's borrowing limit by 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars, as the government is facing mounting budgetary pressure.

　　It was the third and final such request the president would make under the bipartisan deal inked last August to prevent a government default. If approved by Congress, the increase would boost the federal government's borrowing capacity to 16.4 trillion dollars.

　　The Obama administration announced late December that it would ask Congress to raise the federal government's borrowing limit within a week, since the debt subject to limit was within 100 billion U.S. dollars. However, in order to allow vacationing lawmakers time to consider the petition, Obama postponed² the request.

　　After months of contentious³ partisan¹ wrangling⁴, Republicans and Democrats⁵ last summer reached agreement to increase the federal government's borrowing limit by 2.1 trillion dollars from about 14. 3 trillion dollars in three steps. The borrowing limit of U.S. federal government was raised in August and September by 400 billion dollars and 500 billion dollars respectively.

　　The U.S. federal government registered a 1.299 trillion dollars budget deficit⁶ for the 2011 fiscal⁷ year ending September, with an average of about 108 billion dollars per month.

　　Treasury⁸ figures released Thursday show that the U.S. federal government registered a budget deficit of nearly 86 billion dollars in December, bringing the total budget deficit of the first three months of the 2012 budget year to 321.7 billion dollars.

1 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

2 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

3 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

4 wrangling   

v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The two sides have spent most of their time wrangling over procedural problems. 双方大部分时间都在围绕程序问题争论不休。 来自辞典例句
• The children were wrangling (with each other) over the new toy. 孩子为新玩具（互相）争吵。 来自辞典例句

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 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。

8 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。