Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. will reach its $31.4 trillion borrowing cap on Thursday.
The debt limit is the total amount of money the U.S. government is authorized to borrow. Once the limit is reached, the Treasury must take extraordinary measures, essentially accounting maneuvers, to prevent the U.S. from defaulting.
In a letter addressed to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, Yellen warned that she’d be implementing two extraordinary measures to give lawmakers more time. However, extraordinary measures can only be used for a limited amount of time.
“It is therefore critical that Congress act in a timely manner to increase or suspend the debt limit,” Yellen wrote. ”Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability.”
Republicans and Democrats are at odds over how to handle the debt ceiling.
McCarthy told President Joe Biden that Republicans would temporarily raise the debt ceiling in exchange for a spending cap. The Speaker asked to meet with lawmakers to begin negotiations.
“I would like to sit down with all the leaders and especially the president and start having discussions,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday.
But, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was not interested in this sort of negotiation..
“As President Biden has made clear, Congress must deal with the debt limit and must do so without conditions,” the Press Secretary told reporters.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
