The pending debt ceiling relief bill would end a financial maneuver under way involving the Thrift Savings Plan's most popular investment fund, although the process might be repeated in a matter of months unless a longer-term fix is put in place, the TSP said Monday.

The pending debt ceiling relief bill would end a financial maneuver under way involving the Thrift Savings Plan's most popular investment fund, although the process might be repeated in a matter of months unless a longer-term fix is put in place, the TSP said Monday.

In football, a "triple threat" refers to a player skilled at running, passing and kicking. Federal employees currently are facing a triple threat of their own: from the government hitting its debt ceiling, from

pending "sequestration" automatic cuts in budgets, and from a potential lapse in agency spending authority. The three relate in some ways but are separate in others.

House Republicans were lining up behind a debt ceiling proposal that would raise the nation's borrowing limit temporarily while emphasizing the need for Congress to pass a budget.

House Republicans were lining up behind a debt ceiling proposal that would raise the nation's borrowing limit temporarily while emphasizing the need for Congress to pass a budget.

President Obama's recent refusal to let Republicans use increasing the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip -- and the House GOP's plan to pass a three-month extension on the country's borrowing limit -- raised a simple question: Was the debt ceiling always this much of a political football?

Just when most Americans thought the country had avoided an economic meltdown when we swerved away from the fiscal cliff earlier this month, comes another crisis that threatens to throw the U.S. economy into an even worse calamity. Rather than creating peace, this swerve merely set Congress and the Obama administration up for another fiscal battle, this time over the debt ceiling.

President Obama's decision to press forward with a comprehensive set of legislative proposals aimed at curbing gun violence adds a volatile element to what is already shaping up to be a decidedly unstable next few months in Congress.

Republican leaders in Congress have drawn a hard line that spending cuts are essential to any legislative deal to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans in a Washington Post-ABC News poll, however, are divided on the issue: 48 percent say any increase in the debt limit should be tied to cuts, while nearly as many, 45 percent, say that the two issues should be isolated, discrete issues.

President Obama heads into his second term with political momentum on his side, and leads congressional Republicans when it comes to dealing with the country’s debt limit according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.