The ceiling was suspended by Congress in 2023, and the limit was reinstated at $36.1 trillion on Jan. 2, 2025.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ruled out a debt default by the U.S. amid concerns that President Donald Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful’ tax bill could further aggravate the country’s fiscal situation.

While appearing on CBS News' “Face The Nation,” Bessent said, “I will say the United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen.”

“That- we are on the warning track and we will never hit the wall.”

Trump’s tax bill seeks to make his 2017 tax cuts permanent while adding new tax breaks for tip income, overtime pay, and older Americans. It also provides for increasing the debt ceiling — the congressionally mandated cap on the total debt the country can accumulate — by $4 trillion.

The ceiling was suspended by Congress in 2023, and the limit was reinstated at $36.1 trillion on Jan. 2, 2025.

The bill scraped through the House earlier this month and will come for discussion in the Senate next. It will likely trigger lengthy deliberations in the Senate, given the Republicans have signaled the need for extensive changes before it is passed.

The debt ceiling deadline, aka the X date, will likely fall between late August and mid-October, a Bloomberg report said, citing analysts and private forecasters.

When asked in the CBS News interview whether the debt ceiling will be raised by mid-July,  Bessent said, “We don't give out the X date because we use that to move the bill forward.”

The Treasury Secretary expressed confidence in the bill clearing the Senate. “Everyone said that Speaker [Mike] Johnson would not be able to get this bill out of the house with his slim majority.”

He added that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has a bigger majority.

If the debt ceiling isn’t raised by the deadline, the government cannot issue fresh debt, affecting its ability to repay maturing debt and forcing it to cut non-essential spending.

In a January report, the Conference Board said a potential default would have devastating economic and financial market effects, but it expressed confidence that Republicans are likely to use reconciliation to address multiple unavoidable fiscal priorities this year.

Bessent also said President Trump wants to fulfill his campaign promises. “So no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans for American-made automobiles,” he said.

The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) are up 1.7% and 0.9% this year, respectively.

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