(Washington) The US debt ceiling could be reached again in mid-December, after being temporarily raised in October to avoid a default, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday.
“According to certain scenarios, the Treasury would end up with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the American government beyond” of “December 15,” said Janet Yellen, in a letter to Democratic and Republican officials in Congress.
“To ensure the full confidence and credit of the United States, it is essential that Congress raises or suspends the debt ceiling as soon as possible,” she said.
In October, Congress approved a text allowing the country’s debt limit to be temporarily raised by 480 billion dollars, and thus honor its payments until the beginning of December.
The measure had been adopted with the sole support of elected Democrats, the Republicans being fiercely opposed to it.
“It would be an irresponsible and catastrophic decision not to raise the debt ceiling. I can’t imagine our Congress doing that, ”Economy and Finance Minister Joe Biden commented on public radio NPR earlier Tuesday.
She also reiterated her support for a possible removal of the debt ceiling system, which only exists in a handful of countries.
“This is not a position that President Biden has formulated, but I personally think it would be a desirable thing to do,” she noted.
The debt ceiling “(imposes) an arbitrary moment when it becomes impossible to finance the plans and the deficits which were decided by the previous Congresses”, she lamented, referring to a measure now “highly political”.
When this ceiling is reached, it is impossible to borrow, and as soon as the liquidity dries up, it is the default of payment. An unprecedented scenario so far.