President Joe Biden and congressional leaders were set to meet Tuesday to again discuss raising the debt ceiling as the deadline for when the U.S. can no longer pay its bills rapidly approaches.
The two sides met a week ago and were scheduled to reconvene on Friday. That meeting was postponed amid scheduling conflicts. Biden is scheduled to leave Wednesday for a weeklong trip for a G-7 summit in Japan.
While both sides have said they want to find an agreement to stop the debt ceiling from being breached, they also said a solution isn’t yet in sight. The issue due to a historical quirk of U.S. legislation, is that Congress has to sign off on plans to issue new government bonds separately from the plans it agreed for government spending.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday reiterated that the government will probably no longer be able to cover its bills—paying military salaries and interest on bonds, among other things—as soon as June 1. Since January, the government has been using extraordinary measures to carry on business as usual.
“We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States,” Yellen said in a letter to lawmakers on Monday. “I continue to urge Congress to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible.”
Write to Brian Swint at [email protected]
Read the full article here
