The fate of the US debt ceiling is about to be decided.

US President Joe Biden and top Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy appeared to be close to reaching a deal to cut spending and raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling after the two sides met online on May 25.

“Mr. McCarthy and I had a productive conversation and our staff will continue to meet. The talks are going well. I am confident that we will come to an agreement that moves forward and protects the hardworking Americans of this country,” Biden said optimistically.

The deal being considered by negotiators would raise the debt ceiling for two years while limiting most government spending, Reuters quoted a US official as saying.

The deal would set the total amount the government could spend on discretionary programs like housing andeducation , but would not break that amount down into individual categories, Reuters reported. The total could be more than $1 trillion, with the two sides now only $70 billion apart in their targets.

Republican negotiators have backed away from plans to increase military spending while cutting non-defense spending, instead favoring a White House effort to allocate the budget more equitably between the two categories.

World - The fate of the US debt ceiling is about to be decided — “There will be no default, and Congress must act now,” US President Joe Biden affirmed when sharing about the debt ceiling negotiations at the White House on the afternoon of May 25. Photo: elpais.com

However, Mr. Biden and Mr. McCarthy still have different views on who will lose when the US cuts spending.

“I don’t believe the entire burden should fall on middle-class and working Americans, but Republicans in the House disagree,” the president said.

Democrats have insisted they will not allow non-defense priorities like education and health care to bear all of the proposed cuts.

No one knows exactly how much time the US Congress has left to act. The Treasury Department has warned that the federal government could run out of money to pay all its bills as early as June 1, and the world's largest economy is on the brink of its first-ever debt default.

However, on May 25, the ministry said it would sell $119 billion worth of debt that matures on June 1, meaning it could hold out for a while longer.

The path to getting a deal through both the House and Senate and then to the president is narrowing, congressional aides say.

If negotiations go smoothly and a deal is reached by May 26, the earliest it could pass the House would be May 30 and the Senate a day later.

Both Mr Biden and Mr McCarthy have faced calls from rank-and-file members of both parties to not make concessions in the final stages of negotiations.

“It’s going to start to get tough if there’s no deal in the next 24 hours ,” said Neil Bradley, policy director at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Nguyen Tuyet (According to Reuters, Financial Times, The Guardian)

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