US Debt Crisis: US president Joe Biden and Republican house speaker Kevin McCarthy held a sit-down meeting to discuss raising the country’s debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is a spending limit set by US Congress that determines how much money the government can borrow.
“I believe we can get a deal done, ” McCarthy said after the meeting although no agreement was reached between the two. “We don’t have an agreement yet. But I did feel the discussion was productive in areas that we have differences of opinion. Biden and I will talk every day until we get this done,” McCarthy said.
While Joe Biden said in a statement, “I just concluded a productive meeting with Speaker McCarthy about the need to prevent default and avoid a catastrophe for our economy. We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement.”
This comes as Goldman Sachs estimated that the US will run out of cash within three weeks unless it solves its debt crisis. Cash in the Treasury Department would drop below $30bn (£24.1bn) by June 8 or June 9- the bare minimum for the world’s largest economy to meet its obligations, according to the investment bank.
The bank’s economists Alec Phillips and Tim Krupa warned that the estimate is “subject to substantial uncertainty so there is certainly a chance that receipts could slow more than expected and leave the Treasury short of cash by June 1 or 2”.
A default on the US debt would almost surely cause a recession in the US economy, which would have damaging effects on economies all around the world.
