White House declares it won’t negotiate on debt ceiling

WASHINGTON (Reuters), – Friday’s White House statement stated that it would not negotiate the debt ceiling and that there are no talks about its elimination.

Karine Jean Pierre, White House spokesperson, said to reporters that Congress must act on raising the debt ceiling. U.S. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen stated that the country will likely exceed the $31.4 trillion statutory debt limit in January 19.

Treasury will be forced to take extraordinary cash management measures in order to prevent defaults until June.

(Reporting and editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chris Reese