White House Says Debt Deal Must Be Reached By July 22nd

Timothy Geithner has said that we have until August 2nd before the nation would officially be in danger of defaulting on its debt, but the White House now says that a deal has to be reached by July 22nd in order avoid a default:

WASHINGTON — The White House believes it must strike a budget deal with Congress by July 22 to avoid a risk of defaulting on the national debt, Democratic officials briefed on the negotiations said Thursday, as Senate leaders canceled a recess next week to try to break the deadlock with Republicans.

The July 22 date looms large, the officials said, because it will take lawmakers at least a week to draft a bill and get it through two houses before Aug. 2. That is the day when, officials say, the government will reach its debt ceiling and no longer be able to borrow what it needs to keep operating and repay existing debt.

That’s 21 days away. The August 2nd deadline, in the meantime, is 32 days away. Anyone think we’ll do anything other than wait until the last possible minute to reach an agreement?

FILED UNDER: Congress, Deficit and Debt, US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Wiley Stoner says:

    To bad the White House does not control Congress. If Obama will not address the national debt in a responsible way, Congress will. Obama insists on raising taxes because he believes in wealth redistribution. That being the government taking from those that have to give to those they have made dependent on the government. That way they vote those people back in to power. They are buy votes with tax payer dollars. The GOP will hold fast and Obama will have to give. We spoke November of 2010.

  2. john personna says:

    We must raise taxes because that is the only way to balance the budget.

    Now, you can hand-wave about redistribution, and I suppose the very stupidest and the most ideological will go for it … but it’s a filtering question, right?

    If you are stupid enough to believe you can trim spending around the edges (current Republican and Democratic plans), keep taxes where they are, and achieve balance, THEN you are stupid enough to vote the “no new taxes” line.