The Intensifying Standoff Over the Debt Ceiling.

The White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are at an impasse over the budget and debt ceiling, with both refusing to budge. McCarthy has urged President Joe Biden to start more robust negotiations over raising the nation's borrowing limit ahead of the Congressional Budget Act’s April 15 deadline, but Biden has called on House Republicans to introduce a formal budget first. House Republicans are demanding significant spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, while Democrats have called for a "clean" increase not tied to federal spending. The United States is currently using "extraordinary measures" to continue to pay the nation's bills, but those measures are expected to be exhausted sometime this summer.