Yellen's Warnings Ignored as Debt Ceiling Deadline Extended to June 5

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had urged Democrats to raise the debt limit beyond the 2024 elections while they still had control of Congress, but they did not heed her advice. Now, the federal government's cash balance has fallen below $40 billion, and the X-date, the point at which the Treasury Department runs out of enough money to pay all its bills on time, will arrive by June 5. Yellen has been thinking about how to prepare for the worst and laid out the difficult decisions she would face if the Treasury was forced to choose which bills to prioritize. Republicans have been expressing doubts about her credibility, and the White House appears prepared to return $10 billion of the $80 billion that the Internal Revenue Service received as part of last year's Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for preserving other programs.