Hooked on a ceiling
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
Deadlines are looming large for Congress. If policymakers fail to act, the United States could face unprecedented economic catastrophe.
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Time is running out to fund the federal government, which could shutter by Oct. 1. It all has to do with a bigger fight on the debt ceiling — the government’s borrowing limit. Democrats in Congress want to suspend the debt ceiling until next year, but Republicans aren’t playing ball and are threatening a government shutdown in opposition.
But what does that all mean for Americans outside of Congress — for federal workers, for critical government services and for pandemic relief? Tony Romm reports on the stakes of the political fight on Capitol Hill, and the economic crisis waiting on the other side.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Washington has tons of self-imposed deadlines. |
| 0:05.6 | Right now, we're heading towards a collision of three of them. |
| 0:11.2 | The first comes up on September 27th, by which Congress, in the House specifically, has |
| 0:15.6 | said it needs to pass an infrastructure bill. |
| 0:18.5 | That's policy reporter Tony Ron. |
| 0:20.6 | And then just a few days later, on September 30th, if Congress doesn't act, then the government's |
| 0:26.2 | funding is going to run out. |
| 0:27.8 | And the third comes at some unspecified point in October, at which point Congress either |
| 0:32.5 | needs to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, or we could see the U.S. face this unprecedented |
| 0:37.0 | situation of a default, which could cause immense international global repercussions. |
| 0:42.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 0:46.5 | I'm Emma Chalkoff. |
| 0:47.5 | It's Thursday, September 23rd. |
| 0:50.3 | Today, we'll talk to Tony about the hold-up in Congress. |
| 0:55.0 | If lawmakers blow past their deadlines, the government will run out of money, and the |
| 0:59.0 | country could default on its debt. |
| 1:01.0 | That could lead to all these consequences we can't even really predict. |
| 1:07.3 | The first deadline. |
| 1:08.6 | Getting a huge infrastructure bill passed. |
| 1:11.0 | That's supposed to fix things like roads and bridges. |
| 1:14.9 | Next, Congress needs to agree on how to fund the government. |
| 1:18.3 | Otherwise, it will shut down. |
... |
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