Debt limit deadline looms as Democrats, GOP spar on spending

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are trying hard to pressure Republicans into resolving the menacing impasse on the nation’s debt ceiling. In a combative hearing Thursday, the Democrats argued that a bill to raise the limit on federal borrowing, recently passed by the Republican House majority, would also force painful cuts in government services if it becomes law. It’s just the latest jousting in Congress over the debt limit, a legal limit on government borrowing that has been raised repeatedly in recent years. Urgency around the issue intensified this week as the Treasury Department announced that the “extraordinary measures” being used to avoid a devastating government default could run out on June 1.