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Ian Explains: The debt ceiling
Ian Explains: Debt Ceiling | GZERO World

Ian Explains: The debt ceiling

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that her department had begun using extraordinary cash management measures to prevent a credit default until June 5th, but the clock is ticking. If Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling by the time the Treasury runs out of cash, then the US government could default on its loans for the first time in history, Ian Bremmer explains. Not only would this shake investor confidence in US bonds, raising the prospect of an American recession, but because US debt is the cornerstone of the world economy, it could also spark a global financial calamity.

So, what’s the holdup? Politics, of course. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who handed the hard-right delegation of his party everything short of a kidney to secure his leadership role, is signaling that the only way Republicans will agree to increase the debt ceiling is if President Biden works with them on spending cuts in the federal budget—a budget that has grown nearly 30% over the last three years.

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From $3.5 trillion to $2 trillion: Cuts to US spending bill mean less money for families

Congressional spending cuts | US Politics :60 | GZERO Media

From $3.5 trillion to $2 trillion: Cuts to US spending bill mean less money for families

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, shares insights on US politics:

What does it actually mean to cut $1 trillion from the Democrats' $3.5 trillion social spending bill?

President Biden has proposed one of the most ambitious expansions of federal spending in recent memory. If he gets everything he wants, it would probably be the largest expansion of government since the Great Society, but he's not going to get everything he wants. Democrats have basically said they cannot do all $3.5 trillion in spending. They're probably going to end up around $2 trillion. So what gets cut? Well, we don't know yet. There's kind of two ways to go about this. They could either cut the number of programs that have been proposed, doing fewer things with more money on a permanent basis, or they could try to do more things, each program getting less money and potentially doing them on a temporary basis. So, a future Congress would have to extend it. What does this mean for you? Well, a lot of the money in here is designed to go directly to families, either in the form of cash payments, through the tax code, the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, or subsidies for things like child care, early childhood education, and community college. And if you cut these things back, it means less money is going to go out the door to the American people. It also means less tax increases to finance it. So the implications of what's being proposed could actually end up being a big deal for a lot of Americans who would qualify for benefits under these new programs.

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Moderate Democrats will determine the infrastructure bill's fate
Moderate Democrats Will Determine the Infrastructure Bill’s Fate | US Politics :60 | GZERO Media

Moderate Democrats will determine the infrastructure bill's fate

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, shares insights on US politics:

What happened with the infrastructure bill in the House this week?

The infrastructure bill, $550 billion in new spending on infrastructure, roughly doubling the amount of money that the US spends on roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, airports, water infrastructure over a five-year period was scheduled for a vote on Monday of this week. That was later delayed so that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could negotiate between progressives in her caucus and moderates, the moderates who wanted to get the bill done quickly. It was bipartisan.

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