The Treasury Department has warned of dire consequences if the country runs out of money to pay its bills, rendering it unable to pay federal employees and leading to a potential spike in interest rates, with knock-on effects for businesses, mortgages and global markets.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that the United States could start defaulting on its debt “perhaps as early as June 1,” while the Congressional Budget Office expected that to happen sooner rather than later. mid-June.
McCarthy said Thursday, “We’re not there yet… We haven’t agreed on anything yet, but I see the way we can come to an agreement.”
“I think we have the basics now and everyone is working hard” to get there, he added.
US President Joe Biden and congressional leaders, including McCarthy, held two rounds of face-to-face talks.
Any deal must be voted on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate by the deadline. McCarthy estimated the House of Representatives needed four days, while the Senate needed seven days to pass the bill.
“I’ve always said before that it’s important to try to get an agreement – especially in principle – this weekend,” he said.
Democrats and Republicans are very divided on this issue.
Republicans are demanding that Biden agree to a significant reduction in budget spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, ignoring repeated Democrats’ demand for a “clean” increase in the government borrowing limit.
Democrats have accused Republicans of using excessive tactics to advance their political agenda ahead of when the United States begins to default on debt because the government is running out of money.
For her part, US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters at a separate briefing, “This should not constitute a crisis. Our position is clear and simple: Congress must act to prevent the default.”
She added, “This is what Congress has done more than seventy times…since the sixties, and what it did three times under the previous administration. America must pay his bills.”
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
