US financial news live updates: Debt ceiling talks, Social Security checks, interest rates, home sales

As the clock ticks down to US default no plan for negotiators to meet

GOP negotiators returned to the White House on Friday after earlier walking out on negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. However, neither of the two meetings resulted in any progress to avoid the US defaulting on its debt, nor were there plans on when negotiators would meet again.

Lawmakers have less than two weeks to reach an agreement before the X-date is reached, the day the Treasury will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s bills. Secretary Janet Yellen has set that date for 1 June.

Republicans are pushing for deep spending cuts in order to secure their votes to increase the limit set at which the government can borrow. They want to reduce spending to 2022 levels, a bill passed along party lines in the GOP-controlled House would reduce a wide swath of government spending by 8% next year.

Some of the sticking points are caps on spending and new or expanded work requirements on programs like SNAP and Medicaid pushed for by Republicans.

US Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican negotiator, told reporters at the US Capitol that party leaders were “going to huddle as a team and assess where things stood.”