The Obama administration says it will be unable to pay all of its bills if Congress does not raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by October 17. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said he would be unable to prioritize some payments over others among the 30 million transactions his department handles each week.
"It would be chaos," Lew told the Senate Finance Committee.
The Republican plan would postpone that day of reckoning by roughly six weeks, which would give them more time to seek spending cuts, a repeal of a medical-device tax, or other measures they say are needed to keep the national debt at a manageable level.
Democrats have called for a debt-ceiling hike that would extend government borrowing authority for more than a year.
The House could vote on the measure as early as Thursday afternoon, though timing remained unclear. House leaders cancelled a planned recess and said they would remain in Washington next week to keep working on the problem.
Opinion polls indicate that Republicans appear to be getting more of the blame for the standoff. The Republican Party's approval rating now stands at a record low of 28 percent, according to Gallup, down 10 points from pre-shutdown levels. The Democratic Party's approval rating has dipped slightly to 43 percent.
Business groups that have close ties to the Republican Party have also pressed for an end to the brinkmanship and some are laying plans to mount primary challenges next year to lawmakers who refuse to raise the debt ceiling.
With the October 17 deadline a week away, Obama is scheduled to meet with House Republican leaders at 4:35 p.m. EDT (2035 GMT). He is also due to meet separately with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans.
Source: Reuters
