White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said Biden, who met with congressional leaders on Tuesday, will meet with them again when he returns from his trip to attend the G7 summit.
Biden called his Tuesday meeting with Republican politician and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy constructive.
The Democratic president yesterday postponed his plans to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia and cut short his trip to Asia so he could return to Washington.
What is the debt limit?
Unlike developed countries, the United States sets a ceiling on how much it can borrow, called the debt ceiling, and lawmakers have to raise that ceiling periodically because the government is spending more money than it needs. don’t win.
Although raising the debt ceiling, which was first established in 1917, is essentially a routine process, it has become a bone of contention in recent years as Republican lawmakers seek government spending cuts. exchange for an increase in the ceiling.
Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised about 78 times to allow the government to issue debt securities to borrow the funds needed to finance its expenditures and obligations.
America has already witnessed political battles over raising the debt ceiling, the first of which was in 1953 when the Senate suspended its approval in an effort to restrict spending by then-US President Dwight Eisenhower. who asked for an increase in funds so that he could build the national road network.
2011 also witnessed another battle which led to Standard & Poor’s first downgrading of the US government’s credit rating and then President Obama and Congress agreeing to reduce spending more than two trillion dollars over a decade to end the crisis.
What are the reasons for the disagreement?
Congressional Republicans are demanding that Biden agree to a significant cut in budget spending first, before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling by $31.4 trillion, a move that would allow the government to borrow more money .
In contrast, President Joe Biden insists Congress has a constitutional duty to raise the debt ceiling unconditionally to pay for previously approved spending.
The US government had already reached the statutory borrowing limit in January, and since then the Treasury Department has used special accounting measures to make cash available. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress those measures could expire on June 1.
This was confirmed by the US Congressional Budget Office, which said last Friday that there is a “high probability” that the United States will not meet its obligations in the first two weeks of June unless it raise the debt ceiling, and that uncertainty will persist over payments throughout May.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have warned that failure by the United States to meet its obligations will pose great risks to the global economy.
And the US Treasury warns of ‘catastrophic’ consequences if the US administration becomes unable to pay its bills, which will make it unable to pay the salaries of federal employees, which can lead to a significant increase in interest rates , with the possible impact on businesses and mortgage holders.
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