President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The federal government is running out of cash as debt ceiling talks hit a new impasse.
The Treasury General Account was $68.3 billion on Wednesday, down from $140 billion on Friday.
The current cash balance is the lowest since December 2021.
Cash continues to drain out of the US Treasury Department as lawmakers have yet to provide a resolution to the debt ceiling crisis.
According to the latest update, the Treasury General Account fell to $68.3 billion on Wednesday, the lowest since December 2021, down from $87.4 billion on Monday and $140 billion on Friday.
It’s also a considerable drop from the end of April, when the federal government’s cash balance was $316 billion.
The Treasury General Account is used to pay for debt service on government bonds — preventing the US from defaulting — among the myriad other outlays like entitlements and federal employee salaries.
The federal government has spent $3.6 trillion so far this fiscal year, which began in October. And last fiscal year, it spent $6.3 trillion in total.
While the government’s bank account will see more tax payments come in starting on June 15, the sudden drawdown this week raises the risk that the Treasury Department may not have enough to last that long, setting up a potential default.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed her warning that the government could run out of money as soon as June 1.
Lawmakers remain at odds on lifting the debt ceiling. Hopes were high earlier in the week when President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sounded upbeat that a deal could be reached soon.
But on Friday, a meeting of key negotiators was abruptly cut short. Republican Rep. Garret Graves walked out, telling reporters that negotiations were “on pause.“
“Unless they are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves,” he said.
Graves indicated that he did not know if further meetings with the White House would occur anytime soon.