President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will meet May 22 as negotiations resume around reaching a debt-ceiling deal that could pass both the House and Senate by the end of the month, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Four things to know:
1. Negotiations revolve around setting a top-line spending level for the next year and deciding how long to lift the debt ceiling before raising it again, according to the report. Both sides aim to reach a deal by June 1 — the date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen estimates the U.S. could run out of money to pay all of its bills, leading to a first-ever default. Ms. Yellen told NBC News on May 21 that the "odds of reaching June 15, while being able to pay all of our bills, is quite low."
2. If Congress does not raise the debt limit soon and the government is unable to borrow to help pay its bills, it might have to suspend certain pension payments, cut federal workers' pay, or delay interest payments, which would constitute a default, according to The Wall Street Journal.
3. In that instance, it is possible payments to Medicare and Medicaid could stop right away and the "trickle-down implications would eventually make their way through the medical system, worsening the longer the situation continued," according to a May 12 Barron's article.
4. "Default is not an option," President Biden said during a May 9 press conference after a meeting with congressional leaders. "America is not a deadbeat nation. We pay our bills and avoiding default is a basic duty of the U.S. Congress."