The countdown toward a possible U.S. government default began Thursday with the Treasury Department implementing accounting measures as a stopgap, while friction between President Joe Biden and House Republicans raised concern about whether the U.S. can sidestep an economic crisis.
The Treasury Department said in a letter to congressional leaders it has started taking “extraordinary measures” as the government has run up against its legal borrowing capacity of $31.381 trillion. An artificially imposed cap, the debt ceiling has been increased roughly 80 times since the 1960s.
“I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in the letter.
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