The Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, announced that he will submit to a vote a draft of regulations to suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022.

However, in order to reach that goal he will need 60 votes to break the filibustering (prolonging the debate with long speeches to avoid the vote), which means that 10 opposition senators would have to side with the Democrats, something that experts consider difficult.

The situation is preceded by dire warnings from the Treasury Department, for example, which is anticipating disastrous consequences for the domestic and global economy.

A recent report by Moody’s Analytics found that the country could lose six million jobs if it defaults on its debt, causing real Gross Domestic Product to drop by nearly four percent and the unemployment rate to approach nine percent.

According to the same analysis, stock prices would fall by nearly a third, wiping out $15 trillion in household wealth.

The situation is complex because those of the Republican Party want their peers in the Democratic Party, currently in the majority, to solve the problem on their own, ignoring that the expenses are legislated and consumed by both sides.

Congress has until October 18th to raise the debt ceiling. Should a draft to this effect fail to be passed, the United States will have stopped paying its liability for the first time in the country’s history.

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