DebtCeiling

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to prod President Biden into starting talks over spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt ceiling, just as Republicans are struggling to unite around a blueprint for negotiations ahead of dual deadlines later this year.The White House released its own budget proposal earlier this month and has said it won’t negotiate on spending until Republicans put forward their own plan. Mr. McCarthy has rejected that notion and said in a letter to Mr. Biden that talks should start…

There is no clear escape hatch to avoid default if Congress doesn’t pass legislation raising the debt ceiling.Potential alternatives to addressing the borrowing limit—from simply ignoring it, to minting a trillion-dollar coin, to prioritizing certain payments—all face hurdles, underlining doubts about any fallback plan if Democrats and Republicans fail to reach a deal by this summer. Congress must raise the debt limit, currently set at roughly $31.4 trillion, or risk defaulting on debt payments and other government…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. could become unable to pay all of its bills on time sometime between July and September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated, giving lawmakers several months to reach an agreement on lifting the debt limit and avoiding a default.The Treasury Department ran up against the roughly $31.4 trillion debt limit in January. It is now deploying a series of special accounting maneuvers to keep paying the government’s obligations to bondholders, Social Security recipients and others. In its…

Janet Yellen has called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a possible default on the federal government’s debt. Photo: Yesica Fisch/Associated Press…

The Treasury Department is set to begin taking special measures to keep paying the government’s bills on Thursday as the divided Congress braces for a potentially lengthy and difficult debate over raising the debt ceiling. With the federal government about to run up against the debt limit, which Congress set at roughly $31.4 trillion in 2021, the Treasury Department has said it expects to start deploying so-called extraordinary measures. Those accounting maneuvers, which include…