US Debt Ceiling Talks: White House and Republicans at Odds.

Negotiators for President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy are set to reconvene to raise the United States' $31.4tn debt ceiling and avoid a catastrophic default. The Treasury Department has warned that the federal government could be unable to pay all its bills by as soon as June 1. Republicans are pushing for sharp spending cuts while Democrats are offering to keep spending flat, instead using new taxes to help reduce the federal government's debt. The months-long standoff has spooked Wall Street, weighing on US stocks and pushing the nation's cost of borrowing higher.