The treasury secretary urged Congress to increase or suspend the debt limit « as soon as possible. »
Treasury Secretary said the United States might not be able to pay its bills after December 15 as the United States barrels toward hitting the debt limit. The new so-called x-date comes just over one month after lawmakers reached a short-term deal to raise the debt limit into December. In a letter to congressional leadership on Tuesday, Yellen said while she has a « high degree of confidence » that the Treasury will be able to finance the government through December 15, she said there are scenarios in which the Treasury would be left with « insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date. » Yellen had previously said she was confident the U.S. would be able to finance its obligations through December 3. Last month, Congress to avoid economic catastrophe by raising the debt limit by $480 billion, which would keep the government running through early December. Yellen’s latest letter of when the U.S. government would be unable to pay its bills and could default for the first time in history. « As the federal government’s cash flow is subject to unavoidable variability, I will continue to update Congress as more information becomes available, » Yellen wrote in the letter on Tuesday.
