Social Security payments could end if Congress doesn’t raise debt ceiling: Schumer

Social Security payments may come to a halt if Congress doesn’t soon raise the national debt ceiling, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Sunday.

It was his latest dire statement as lawmakers continue to struggle over increasing the federal government’s borrowing limit, with Republican pols insisting on including big spending cuts in any deal.

“There are so many bad, bad consequences to America falling on its debt,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said at a Midtown press conference, “but one of the least noticed but most important is that it would stop the sending of Social Security checks to the tens of millions of seniors who depend on them.”

Last month, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation to raise the debt ceiling. It also moved to freeze spending at 2022 levels for a decade, coming to a spending cut of over 10% for the federal government.

President Biden, who’s insisted on raising the debt ceiling with no strings attached, is set to host congressional leaders at the White House on Monday in hopes of ending the stalemate.

Since the debt ceiling was reached in January, the feds have used an array of tricks to keep functioning. But Washington is on track to “run out of cash” in early June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday.

“We have been using extraordinary measures for several months now,” she told ABC’s “This Week.” “And our ability to do that is running out.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) appears to be sticking to his guns for now.

“House Republicans did their job and passed a responsible bill that raises the debt ceiling, avoids default, and tackles reckless spending,” he said in a recent statement. “The Senate and the president need to get to work — and soon.”

With News Wire Services