On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen officially notified Congress that the US had reached its statutory debt ceiling limit and that she, like her predecessors, would start using certain “extraordinary measures” to make sure the ceiling wasn’t breached. Here is a link to the official communication from the Secretary to the Congress on Thursday.
Republicans in the House are insisting on significant rollbacks in government spending programs, but most specifically exclude defense spending, which makes up the largest discretionary spending category. It is hard to see how significant spending reductions can be made without touching entitlement programs that include Social Security and Medicare. The path to a resolution was further complicated when former President Trump issued a statement that Social Security and Medicare should not be cut as part of the debt ceiling legislation.
Speaker McCarthy has put himself in a box with the promises he made in order to secure his Speakership. He committed to not increase the debt ceiling without cuts in spending, an idea that has little support in the Senate or the White House. Some reports coming out of DC claim that preliminary talks are taking place to set up a meeting between Biden and McCarthy.
Time frame: Secretary Yellen has told Congress that the best estimates done by the Treasury indicate that the debt ceiling can be managed with extraordinary measures until June, maybe later. Congress seems to wait for deadlines before acting. Hence, it is unlikely that a plan to increase the ceiling will come together until there is a deadline for default.
House hearings
The next two years in DC will likely be dominated by hearings held by Republican House Committees designed to put a spotlight on issues they believe will hurt Democrats in 2024. This week the House Oversight Committee announced hearings for the week of February 6 on the crisis at the Southern border. There seem to be daily reports of the problems that the flood of illegal immigrants are causing on the border. The hearings will feature those Biden administration appointees who run the relevant agencies and officials from border communities.
The main purpose of the hearings will be to embarrass the administration, but at some point, it could lead to some bipartisan bill as both parties concede that the immigration process is broken.