Free Republic

“Extraordinary measures” will be needed to keep the US from defaulting on its obligations if the nation’s debt ceiling isn’t raised or suspended by mid-January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress Friday. Yellen, in a letter to House and Senate leaders, noted that the nation’s debt ceiling — the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow to pay for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare benefits — was suspended in June 2023 but will once again be in effect on Jan. 1. ***. “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and...

The victor of the 2024 election is set to face a number of new legislative deadlines immediately upon entering office that could have drastic effects on the country’s economy. More than a dozen candidates are eyeing the Oval Office in 2024, positioning themselves as the best choice to address the nation’s cultural and economic challenges. However, upon taking office in 2024, the winner of the presidential election must deal with the impending expirations of both the 2017 tax law as well as subsidies included in Obamacare. On top of that, the debt limit bill is also set to expire just...

The Senate voted late into the night on Thursday to approve a House-passed bill to suspend the debt limit with just days to go until Monday’s fast-approaching deadline to prevent a first-ever default. After hours of discussion and debate, lawmakers considered and voted down 11 amendments to the bill — 10 from Republicans and one from a Democrat — before finally passing the bill, sending the measure to President Joe Biden's desk with just days to spare ahead of Monday's default deadline. "No one gets everything they want in a negotiation, but make no mistake: this bipartisan agreement is a...

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a key member the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), indicated Tuesday that if Republicans do not stop the debt deal in committee he would consider ousting Kevin McCarthy from leadership as House speaker. In an interview with Glenn Beck on "BlazeTV" Tuesday morning, Roy called the debt limit deal that McCarthy, R-Calif., struck over the weekend with the White House a "betrayal of the power-sharing arrangement that we put in place" – that is to say, the promises McCarthy made to the HFC to give him the votes needed to secure him the speakership after a 15-voting-round...

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) on Tuesday became the first House Republican to publicly approve of forcing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) out of his position as speaker over the debt ceiling deal he reached with President Joe Biden. Bishop was the only Republican at a House Freedom Caucus press conference Tuesday to raise his hand to signal that he would support ousting McCarthy over the deal, which conservative Republicans say does not cut enough spending and raises the debt limit too much. "I think it’s got to be done," Bishop said after the press conference, The Hill reported.

Conservative House Republicans are already voicing criticism about the agreement in principle to cap spending and raise the debt ceiling announced late Saturday as the White House and GOP leadership work to avoid a default on the nation’s debt. Rep. Dan Bishop (R) tweeted a vomiting emoji to express his thoughts on the proposed deal, noting that RINOS, or Republicans in Name Only, were “congratulating [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy [(R-Calif.)] for getting almost zippo in exchange for $4T debt ceiling hike.” “Actually, it’s so bad they won’t give a figure for the debt ceiling hike … only that it’s suspended til...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is facing intense opposition from conservative members of his own party over the tentative debt limit deal he reached with President Joe Biden. Many congressional Republicans from the conservative Freedom Caucus have said they are against McCarthy's tentative deal he reached Saturday with Biden. A source close to House Republican leadership told Axios on Sunday that 60 conservative Republicans may not vote for the deal, which means McCarthy would need nearly that many Democrats to vote for the bill in the House, which has 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats. A summary of the deal obtained...

"WASHINGTON — House Republicans reached a tentative deal with the White House on Saturday night to address the nation’s borrowing limit and avoid a catastrophic default on U.S. sovereign debt."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism Saturday about sealing a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling before the nation reaches its borrowing limit June 5. “I feel closer to an agreement now than I did a long time before,” he told reporters as he arrived at the US Capitol Saturday morning, after a marathon negotiation session that ended at 2:30 am, hinting that the final language could be completed within hours.

The House Freedom Caucus on Thursday threw a wrench in Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plans to finalize a debt limit deal with President Biden, demanding new provisions in exchange for their votes. Thirty-five members of the hardline group sent a letter to Mr. McCarthy outlining a new conservative wish list. The lawmakers wrote that GOP unity behind Mr. McCarthy would be endangered if the demands were unmet. “The power of an undivided Republican Party guided by conservative principles cannot be overstated,” the lawmaker wrote. “As you navigate the debt limit debate, you are the steward of this unity and will determine...

It sounds like President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have resolved one crucial point on the debt negotiations. They’ve reached the most important agreement — they will avoid a default and take that option off the table.They came together to list their points of agreement:JUST IN: Pres. Biden outlines agreements and pain points in ongoing debt ceiling negotiations with House Speaker McCarthy: "We both agree default's not really on the table. We've got to get something done here." https://t.co/9q3mCFLnXe pic.twitter.com/cCVsPE3WSy— ABC News (@ABC) May 22, 2023That’s going to flip out the left who seemed set on driving us...

President Biden would be blameless in the event that the U.S. defaults on its debt in the coming days, the president declared Sunday. Biden made the claim during a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where he had traveled for meetings with G-7 nations. Republicans in Congress forced Biden to the negotiating table after months of the White House insisting there would be no debate over the issue. Biden now argues that certain "MAGA Republicans" are seeking to cause a default in an effort to crash the economy ahead of Biden's re-election effort. "I've done my part," Biden said regarding negotiations,...

Debt ceiling talks are now on 'pause,' according to House Republicans, after all sides expressed hope earlier this week that there could be a deal on the horizon. Rep. Garrett Graves followed White House negotiators out of a meeting in the speaker's office and told reporters they had pressed pause on negotiations. He called talks 'not productive' and said the Biden administration was making 'unreasonable' requests.

Right now, the Fed’s gold certificate values gold at $42.22 an ounce. That’s obviously not anywhere near the market price of gold, which, again, is about $2,042 an ounce. Now, the Treasury could issue the Fed a new gold certificate valuing the 8,000 tons of Treasury gold at $2,042 an ounce. They could take today’s market price of $2,042, subtract the official $42.22 price and multiply the difference by 8,000 tons.

Flashback 8/7/2011: David Gregory: "Are U.S. treasury bonds still safe to invest in?" Alan Greenspan: "Very much so. This is not an issue of credit rating..the United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that, so there is zero probability of default."

A group of 43 Republicans in the U.S. Senate said on May 6 that they “oppose raising the debt ceiling without substantive spending and budget reforms,” coalescing around their House counterparts ahead of the White House meeting over the federal debt ceiling amid a monthslong political standoff.“The Senate Republican conference is united behind the House Republican conference in support of spending cuts and structural budget reform as a starting point for negotiations on the debt ceiling,” the group of Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), said in a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Calif.).“It is now...

During an interview with MSNBC on Friday aired on Friday’s broadcast of “The 11th Hour,” President Joe Biden claimed that “no one’s ever tied” their budget to raising the debt ceiling and responded to charges that former President Donald Trump was willing to play ball on issues while he won’t by stating that Trump hurt the economy and increased debt, while the economy under the Biden presidency is doing well.

President Joe Biden on Monday finally requested that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) negotiate the debt limit during a meeting to be held on May 9 to avoid default, a move that contradicted the White House’s previous official position. While traveling in Israel, McCarthy received a call from Biden to schedule a meeting to negotiate raising the debt limit after days of stonewalling tactics, Punchbowl News reported.

Let’s start here: House Republican leaders declared repeatedly over the last few days that they wouldn’t change their $4.8 trillion debt-limit package before it hit the floor. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his top lieutenants vowed to muscle the Limit, Save, Grow Act through the chamber without altering the underlying measure.But late Tuesday night, McCarthy’s leadership crew bent to an uncomfortable reality — the bill needed to be changed, so they changed it.Following a marathon House Rules Committee meeting that stretched into early this morning, House Republican leaders included an amendment softening a provision that repealed a host of biofuel tax...

If House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) can't cut a deal to cut spending in exchange for raising the debt limit, it could trigger a Greece-like financial collapse, potentially even sparking violence and unrest of a kind not seen in modern America, warns a federal budget expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "What we are looking at is a Greek-style debt crisis at some point, meaning decades of lost economic growth," Richard Stern told Just The News this week. The Greek debt crisis began at the start of the Great Recession and dragged on for years, severely shaking confidence in the...