US debt ceiling

 

McCarthy on Saturday. J. Scott Applewhite / AP  

 

US debt ceiling 

McCarthy pushes through new vote tonight: "Wants to be the adult in the room"  

 

The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has managed to get another vote to try to stop the shutdown, which otherwise comes into effect at midnight American time, several media outlets write. 

 

If the House of Representatives accepts the proposal, government agencies can continue to stay open for another 45 days, until November 17. In the provisional budget, disaster aid will be included, but support for Ukraine is not included, writes Bloomberg.  

 

- If someone wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, they are welcome to try, McCarthy told reporters on Saturday according to Bloomberg. 

 

 The comment comes after several hard-line Republicans threatened to vote him out as speaker.

 

 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. J. Scott Applewhite / AP 

US debt ceiling 

Last chance for Congress to agree: "Great frustration"  

 

Politicians return to the US Congress on Saturday without a clear solution to the budget battle in sight, reports Reuters. If no agreement is reached, the state apparatus will shut down overnight until Sunday.  

 

Late Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down the proposal for a temporary solution to fund government operations after the weekend.  

 

- There is great frustration over the 21 individuals who chose to vote "no" to what was a very good plan, says Republican Nicole Malliotakis.  

 

According to estimates by Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs, each week's shutdown would reduce quarterly GDP growth by 0.2 percentage points.  

 

The immediate consequence of a shutdown is that millions of federal government and military employees are without pay. In addition, state payments to companies such as Elon Musk's space company Space X would be stopped.