WASHINGTON – The government will reach the $16.4 trillion debt limit Monday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders Wednesday, adding a new and possibly dramatic wrinkle to negotiations aimed at averting the “fiscal cliff.”

The news came as President Barack Obama and the Senate prepared to return to Washington today, and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives conferred by phone Wednesday to plot strategy.

If no alternatives are adopted, Bush-era income tax rates will expire at the end of the year and $109 billion in automatic spending cuts will take effect Jan. 2.

In his letter, Geithner said the Treasury “will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations.”  More

$16.4 trillion! So, what's at the bottom of the fiscal cliff?

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