美国国家公共电台 NPR--Treasury Department prepares for the worst — if the debt ceiling isn't raised

Treasury¹ Department prepares for the worst — if the debt ceiling isn't raised

Transcript²

The Treasury Department is not set up to pay some of its bills and not others. But it may be forced into that situation, if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling soon.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

What happens if the government runs out of money to pay its bills?

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy keeps saying not to worry about that. They met yesterday to negotiate over raising the federal debt limit. Congress needs to do that in order to meet its legal obligations. Biden spoke³ before yesterday's meeting.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We still have some disagreements. But I think we may be able to get where we have to go. We both know we have a significant responsibility.

INSKEEP: McCarthy said after the meeting, I believe we can get it done. But hardly more than a week remains⁴ before June 1. The Treasury Department says that's the earliest date at which the U.S. may have less money than it needs.

MARTIN: NPR's Scott Horsley has been asking what that might look like. Good morning, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE⁵: Good morning.

MARTIN: So let me start with Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace⁶ of South Carolina. She was on MORNING EDITION not long ago. She suggested the U.S. can pay its existing debts. Let's listen to what she said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

NANCY MACE: We can prioritize. The president can prioritize spending. We're not going to run out of money to pay the interest on the debt because we get 11 times the interest on the debt in tax revenues year over year.

MARTIN: So let me briefly⁷ fact check that. Is she right?

HORSLEY: If all you're concerned about is making interest payments on the government's debt, she is right. The government almost certainly will keep making those payments. And interest isn't due until the middle of June anyway. But the government has tens of billions of dollars in other bills that it's supposed to pay before that. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says it's very likely the government will not have enough money to cover all those bills unless Congress raises the debt limit soon. Keep in mind, tax revenue covers only about 75 cents of every dollar the government spends. The rest has to be borrowed. And if the government can't borrow more money, some bills are going to go unpaid⁸.

MARTIN: Which is like the way a lot of families live, right? I mean, if you don't have enough money to pay all your bills, you prioritize some over the others. So how is the government going to decide who gets paid and who doesn't?

HORSLEY: Yeah, the government has a very tough call. Who do you stiff, retirees on Social Security, members of the military, doctors who look after Medicare patients, taxpayers⁹ who are waiting for their refunds¹⁰? Bondholders are paid through a separate computer system, so they can easily be given priority. But Yellen told a Senate committee this spring, trying to pay some of the government's bills and not others is both risky¹¹ and untested.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JANET YELLEN: The government, on average, makes millions of payments each day. And our systems are built to pay all of our bills on time and not to pick and choose which bills to pay.

HORSLEY: That said, the Treasury Department might be forced into that position in just about nine days. Yellen told NBC over the weekend if the debt ceiling is not raised, there will be hard choices to make about which bills go unpaid. Now, the government has not said a lot about how it would go about that. It would be messy. There could be legal challenges. One option would be to keep paying bills in order as tax money becomes available. So perhaps someone who's expecting a Social Security payment on June 2 instead gets paid on June 3 or June 5. The longer the impasse¹² drags on, the more those unpaid bills pile up and the later the payments might get.

MARTIN: How much lasting¹³ damage would that do?

HORSLEY: Well, when an individual is late paying bills, his credit rating takes a hit. And that makes it more expensive to borrow money in the future. The same thing could happen to the federal government. Now, if bondholders keep getting paid, this might not count as a technical default. But Yellen has said failure to pay any of the government's bills would be a default by another name. And, you know, it would likely rattle¹⁴ the financial markets. Bondholders might reasonably wonder, how long are they going to keep getting paid while grandmothers and service members have their checks held up? That's not a very good look politically.

MARTIN: That certainly isn't. That is NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, thank you so much.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

1 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 mace   

n.狼牙棒，豆蔻干皮

参考例句：

• The sword and mace were favourite weapons for hand-to-hand fighting.剑和狼牙棒是肉搏战的最佳武器。
• She put some mace into the meat.她往肉里加了一些肉豆蔻干皮。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

9 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

10 refunds   

n.归还，偿还额，退款( refund的名词复数 )v.归还，退还( refund的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Tomorrow he would return them to the store and claim refunds. 明天他要把它们退还给商店并要求退款。 来自辞典例句
• The new method means that taxpayers get refunds much faster. 这种新办法意味着纳税人可以较快地领到退还款。 来自辞典例句

11 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

12 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

13 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

14 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。