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RED ALERT: U.S. pulverizes its debt ceiling

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announces "extraordinary measures" that include halting investments and suspending asset issuance.

Dólares

(Pexels)

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

The United States reached its debt ceiling on Thursday. Set at $31.38 trillion, the Treasury Department warned that the nation has already exceeded that limit. It was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who, in a letter sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, informed him that her department would be obliged to implement "extraordinary measures" to avoid bond defaults.

Carta de Janet Yellen a Kevin McCarthy by VozMedia on Scribd

In this way, Just the News recalls how, the department will not be able to meet some investments such as the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and Medicare benefits. At least until the end of the "debt issuance suspension period" that Yellen set between January 19 and June 5:

The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty. I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.

This is not the first time the Treasury Secretary has asked Congress to take action. A few days before the nation reached the debt ceiling on January 13, Janet Yellen warned both the House and Senate that it was "critical that Congress act in a timely manner."

Failure to meet the government's obligations would cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and global financial stability.

GOP against raising the debt ceiling

Congress last raised the debt ceiling in December 2021, when both Congress and the Senate were under Democratic control. And the measure could be repeated if an agreement is reached. However, several Republican congressmen spoke out against a further increase in the debt ceiling. Matt Rosendale was one of them. The Montana congressman assured through a tweet that "raising the debt limit will only hurt future generations and weaken national security."

He was not the only critic of the measure. Utah Congressman Chris Stewart explained that the debt, in just two years, had "risen by about $4 trillion," while asserting that he also did not believe it was a coincidence that " inflation also recently climbed to a 40-year high."

For her part, the representative of New York's 11th district, Nicole Malliotakis, assured that the blame for reaching the debt ceiling was on the Democrats and not, as Biden's party wanted people to believe, on the Republicans:

The congresswoman responded to Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary that, on Wednesday, January 18 again made clear the Democrats' intention not to negotiate with Republicans: "We’ve been very clear there should not be any negotiations around here. We should not be stepping around dealing with the debt ceiling. We’ve been incredibly clear here."

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