Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US will “never default” as the deadline for increasing the federal debt cap approaches.
“It’s not going to happen,” Bescent said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” that it will air on Sunday. “We’re in the warning truck, but we don’t hit the wall.”
Republican Congressional leaders have attached an increase in debt restrictions to President Trump’s tax and spending bill, which could be delegated to the mercy of complex negotiations over the law. The US Senate will return this week to get the bill back.
Bessent refused to specify “X Date”. This is the key to allowing the Treasury to remove cash and special accounting measures, stay within the debt cap and fulfill its federal obligations on time.
“We don’t give you an ‘X date’ because we use it to move the bill forward,” Bescent said. Last month, Bescent told lawmakers that if the debt cap is not raised or suspended by then, the US is likely to run out of borrowing authorities by August.
Wall Street analysts and private forecasters will confirm that deadlines will occur between late August and mid-October.
Bessent also features JPMorgan Chase & Co. He opposed the warning by Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who said a rift in the bond market “will happen.”
“I’ve known Jamie for a long time. Throughout his career, he made this prediction,” he said. “Fortunately, none of them have come to fruition.”
“We’re going to slowly beat the deficit,” Bescent said. “It’s been a long process, so the goal is to beat it over the next four years.”
Czuczka writes for Bloomberg News.
