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The Congressional Budget Office warned that America could default on its debt sometime over the summer if the President and House Republicans don’t agree on the debt ceiling soon.
“If the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will be exhausted between July and September 2023,” Phillip L. Swagel, a director for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said on Feb. 15.
Swagel addressed reporters as he released the CBO’s Federal Debt and the Statuary Limit, February 2023, statement.
The government reached its most recent debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion on Jan. 19. This triggered extraordinary measures to prevent the country from defaulting on its loans.
Extraordinary measures are accounting practices that keep the country from defaulting while Congress and the president negotiate. However, extraordinary measures only buy time, and once they end, default is inevitable.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the country would not default.
While President Joe Biden initially took a hard stand on what concessions he would make to raise the debt ceiling, he has since softened.
