Congress needs to cancel its vacation and get to work

This is hardly something new, but once again Congress is failing to do its job. The United States government could run out of money to pay its bills by September if Congress doesn’t vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. That’s because the federal government has brought in far less tax revenue this year than expected. There have been talks over raising the debt ceiling, but no agreement is in place, and those talks have bogged down in recent weeks. So what is the urgency? The government could run out of money to pay its bills. And Congress is about to go on its long summer break. Congress is scheduled to be in recess throughout the month of August and through the Labor Day weekend. So Congress needs to act in the next couple weeks in order to avoid breaching its borrowing limit before members of Congress return to Washington. If a deal doesn’t get done soon, there could be financial chaos. Failing to raise the debt ceiling before their summer break could stop benefits payments for millions of Americans, primarily the elderly, and could lead to a stock market crash that could hurt the investments of millions of Americans. And unless new spending legislation is passed, the federal government will begin to shut down at the end of September. Clearly the stakes are high, and the clock is ticking. Congress, better cancel those vacation plans. There is plenty of work to do, and little time to do it.