Washington, May 21 (EFE).- The US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, pointed out that June 1 remains the date on which the US could default on its sovereign debt for the first time and stressed that “tough decisions” would then have to be made.
“If the debt ceiling is not raised, tough decisions will have to be made. Since 1789 the United States has paid its bills on time. That is what the world wants to see, the commitment to continue doing it, ”he said on the NBC channel“ Meet the press ”program.
bills payable
Yellen stressed that if an agreement is not reached there will be “some bills” that cannot be paid, but she did not specify which sectors it would affect because she pointed out that they are currently focused on how to raise that limit, which was 31.4 billion and was reached in january.
The Government is resorting to money in its reserves to pay the debt it has contracted, but the Treasury Department estimates that these reserves will be exhausted on June 1, a term that, as it reiterated, has not changed.
Some Democrats and legislators such as the leftist Bernie Sanders have already asked the president, Joe Biden, to use the power conferred by the constitutional amendment number 14 to raise the debt ceiling without going through the authorization of Congress.
It has never defaulted on the national debt
“It doesn’t seem appropriate in these circumstances, given the legal uncertainty surrounding it and the tight time frame. My deep hope is that Congress will raise the debt limit,” Yellen said.
The United States has never defaulted on its national debt, but from time to time it looks at that possibility because, unlike other countries, its Executive can only issue debt up to the limit established by Congress, which has the power to suspend that ceiling as you see fit.
Biden has transferred to the leaders of the G7 at the summit held in Hiroshima (Japan) “security” on the possibility of reaching an agreement with the Republican opposition and returns this Sunday to Washington to continue the negotiations.
