Bipartisan observers have estimated that the federal government would reach the debt ceiling in the late third or fourth quarter of this year and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin himself has warned that they could no longer use "extraordinary measures" to extend the deadline any further than that.
Mnuchin now says the debt ceiling will arrive sooner rather than later, perhaps as early as this summer.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday urged Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling as soon as possible, saying the U.S. government was expected to exhaust its borrowing authority around late summer.
“I haven’t given an exact date, but I would say it’s late summer,” Mnuchin told a hearing of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, when asked about the timing of the potential crisis.
When Congress raised the debt ceiling earlier this year, Trump vowed that hey would not do so again without significant spending changes, but I don't necessarily expect he will pick a fight this summer.
I think we should all expect to see Trump make demands, but I do not believe his demands should be taken seriously.
After all, defaulting on the national debt would be really bad news for Trump himself who has a significant amount of financial leverage hanging over his head.