GOP questions Yellen’s debt ceiling deadline.
Republicans Question Validity of Treasury Secretary’s Debt Ceiling Prediction
Some Republicans in Congress are questioning the validity of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s predicted “X date,” when the United States will run out of money to pay its bills.
Yellen has said that unless a deal is reached to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. will default on its debts on June 1. Not everyone is convinced of her calculations, however, with a growing number of Republicans calling the projection into question.
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“I don’t believe that the first of the month is a real deadline,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told CNN. “I don’t understand why we’re not making Janet Yellen show her work.” Gaetz later backed his statement up in a tweet, arguing that Yellen’s apparent inability to foresee inflation puts her economic judgment into question. “She couldn’t even see inflation coming from a mile away!” he quipped.
“June 1st? Everybody knows that’s false,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said. “I think Secretary Yellen is trying to put pressure on Congress,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said earlier this month. “I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the Treasury’s statements about the precise time … this June 1 date. I think that’s a political statement, not a statement based on fact.”
Yellen has stuck by her prediction, pointing to an assessment from the Congressional Budget Office. “I certainly haven’t changed my assessment. So I think that’s a hard deadline,” she told Meet the Press on May 21. “I would point out the Congressional Budget Office has recently indicated that they expect early June will be a problem. And forecasters on Wall Street who look at information daily on our cash balances and resources agree.”
On Monday, Yellen reaffirmed her position, saying that a June default had gone from “likely” to “highly likely” in lieu of further action from Congress. “With an additional week of information now available, I am writing to note that we estimate that it is highly likely that Treasury will no longer be able to satisfy all of the government’s obligations if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by early June, and potentially as early as June 1,” she wrote.
Conclusion
The debate over the debt ceiling continues, with Republicans questioning the validity of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s prediction of a June 1 default. While Yellen has pointed to assessments from the Congressional Budget Office and Wall Street forecasters, some Republicans remain unconvinced. As the deadline approaches, it remains to be seen whether Congress will act to raise or suspend the debt limit.
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