Trump intervened to sink a US debt ceiling bill. What happens next?
Al Jazeera
Trump’s late intervention to sink a bipartisan debt ceiling increase leaves lawmakers scrambling to reach an agreement.
The US Congress has until Friday at midnight to pass a bill raising the country’s borrowing limits, also known as the debt ceiling, without which large sections of the government could stop operating.
A bill that would have extended the deadline until March 14, prepared by both Democrats and Republicans, was scuttled after President-elect Donald Trump announced his opposition on Wednesday, following an effort by billionaire ally Elon Musk to raise opposition.
Republicans have indicated that a new bill has been agreed, and a vote could happen on Thursday evening. But it’s still unclear if it will actually pass in both houses of Congress.
What is the debt ceiling, why is it so contentious, and what can this latest episode tell us about Musk and his growing influence in US politics? We take a look at those questions and more in this brief explainer.
The debt ceiling is a cap imposed by the US Congress on how much money the government can borrow to cover the gap between its revenue and how much it spends.
