From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Speer.Texas freshman Republican Senator Ted Cruz finally called it quits this morning after his 21-hour, 19-minute talkathon on the floor of the US Senate.Cruz spoke in favor of dismantling President Obama's health care law.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Cruz's marathon speech "a waste of time.""The things he talked about have been talked about before on a number of occasions;in fact, endlessly."The Senate moved ahead with a test vote on the measure,would allow for a possible vote Friday on the bill over the government shutdown.While the House passed a version the measure contains a provision to gut the health care law,the Senate is expected to remove that.One of the departments that stand to be severely affected by the budget impasse in Washington is Treasury.Treasury Secretary Jack Lew saysas of October 17th, Treasury will be powerless to avoid a default on US government debtif Congress does not act to raise the debt celling.NPR's John Ydstie reportsthe warning came in a letter to all members of Congress.In his letter, Lew estimated that by October 17th,Treasure may have only about 30 billion dollars on hand to honor a daily obligation that could exceed 60 billion dollars.He urged members of Congress to act immediately to raise the borrowing limit.He reminded them thata last-minute fight over the debt celling issue in 2011 caused significant harm to the economyand the downgrade to the credit rating of the United States.Lew said legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives,which would prioritize debt payments honoring some obligations but not others,
