The White House trusted this Tuesday that the alert of the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the federal government could run out of money on June 1 to meet its obligations get the Republicans to change their position and allow the increase in the debt ceiling no requirements.
“The debt limit was increased three times under the presidency of Trump (2017-2021). It shouldn’t be any different this time. Given the limited time that Congress now has, it is clear that the only practical way to avoid default is for Congress to suspend the debt limit without conditions,” said the white house spokesmanKarine Jean-Pierre.
Yellen alerted this Monday that, after reviewing the federal tax revenue In recent years, their best estimate is that the government’s obligations will potentially not continue to be satisfied on June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before then.
The Treasury Secretary sent that written warning to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy; the Democratic leader in that chamber, Hakeem Jeffries; the leader of the progressives in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and Mitch McConnell, the main figure of the Republican opposition in the High camera.
That same day, the US President Joe Biden He summoned the four to a meeting at the White House on May 9 to discuss the issue.
Jean-Pierre stressed Tuesday that it is time for McCarthy and hard-line Republicans “to stop their suicidal policies and act to prevent default, which would have devastating consequences for the economy and Americans.”
The spokeswoman noted that Biden has stressed to those four politicians that Congress has a constitutional obligation to prevent default and noted that while he will talk to them about the budget and spending, he is not willing to negotiate on the debt ceiling.
The House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, approved on April 26 a bill to raise the debt limit in exchange for extensive cuts in public spending, but the Democrats do not want to condition one thing to the other and the White House has already warned that Biden will veto that initiative if it ends up reaching his office.
The current debt ceiling is US$31.4 trillion and was reached on January 19. That same day, the Treasury activated “extraordinary measures” to pay the bills and estimated that these allowed them to continue until June 5, a deadline now advanced.