A Polarized US Hurtles Toward a Fiscal Cliff
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy swears in lawmakers at the US Capitol on Jan. 7.
Photographer: Al Drago/BloombergThe risk has never been higher that the world’s largest economy could default on its national debt for the first time.
The US government has reached its legal borrowing limit — $31.381 trillion — and far-right Republicans in the House are demanding concessions from the White House, such as spending cuts, in exchange for lifting the ceiling, as they have previously over the years.