Congress squabble over debt ceiling as risk of default inches closer
As hundreds of millions of Americans faced a deadline on Tuesday to file their annual tax returns, Congress continued to squabble over paying its own bills.
Tax Day came and went this week without lawmakers reaching an agreement on lifting the debt ceiling, the US government’s borrowing limit to cover all of its financial obligations. Experts have warned that failure to lift or suspend the debt ceiling could have catastrophic consequences for the US economy, which would be felt in every American household.
After months of stalled negotiations, the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, attempted to kickstart talks with the White House on Wednesday by outlining his proposal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for government spending cuts that would curtail implementation of Joe Biden’s landmark climate and healthcare legislation.
But that proposal may not be able to pass the House, given Republicans’ narrow majority. Even if the bill does make it through the House, the proposal has already been rejected by Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader.
With the calendar inching closer to June, when a default could occur, the path forward on raising the debt ceiling remains deeply unclear.
McCarthy’s 320-page debt ceiling bill proposed lifting the government’s borrowing limit into 2024 in exchange for a number of rightwing policy concessions. If the bill were adopted, the federal government’s budget would be rolled back to fiscal year 2022 levels and limited to 1% annual growth for the next decade. McCarthy has also called for repealing portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the signature bill Bidensigned last year, and block the president’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt, which is
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