Topline With less than two weeks until the Treasury Department expects to hit the congressionally set limit on the nation’s total borrowing, the White House warned on Wednesday that the resulting debt default would quickly—and in some cases, overnight—hinder the government’s ability to pay out federal benefits relied upon by tens of millions of Americans, putting pressure on lawmakers to raise or suspend the debt ceiling as they struggle to reach a compromise. Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ programs and housing assistance would be at risk. getty Key Facts If Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt ceiling by October 18 to enable the federal government to borrow more, the Treasury would be “immediately impaired” from carrying out its basic functions, including providing financial assistance like Social Security, a team of White House economists led by Cecilia Rouse wrote in a Wednesday note. “It could take decades to recover,” the team said, pointing out that roughly 56 million Social Security recipients may not receive their payments on time, or at all, in the event of a default. Government healthcare coverage—including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insuranc… Click below to read the full story from Forbes
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