Budget Deficits Have Consequences

RealClearMarkets - Budget Deficits Have Consequences
"Just after the debt ceiling increase, the Treasury announced, without consulting Congress, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would get unlimited funding for the next three years for emergency aid to the housing market, 'to assure markets of the government's support.'
The translation of bureaucratic prose into ordinary speech is quite simple: the administration does not feel bound by congressional debt limits. It will spend as it sees fit.

The next time Congress considers raising the debt ceiling, a few members may wonder aloud what difference the debt ceiling makes when the administration brazenly ignores it.

It's not as if Fannie and Freddie have no money authorized by Congress.
So far they have been allocated $400 billion for emergency housing loans, of which $111 billion has been spent.
That means that the two government-sponsored enterprises already have congressional authority to spend an additional $289 billion. Now the administration finds that this is not sufficient, and the agencies can spend as much as they like even without congressional authority."