Congress Has Blown By 6 Debt Limit Deadlines So Far

Today is, supposedly, the absolute last day for debt limit legislation to be introduced in the House if the US wants to avoid defaulting on Aug. 2. As we wait to see if lawmakers make the deadline, Uri Friedman, writing in in the Atlantic Wire, looks at all the deadlines they've missed so far:

1. May 16: Timothy Geithner originally named this as the date the US would risk default, but when it passed without Congress raising the debt ceiling, the Treasury shuffled some clamshells to postpone the default date to Aug. 2—at which point "the borrowing authority of the United States will be exhausted."
2. June 31: On June 1, John Boehner said that a deal must be made in the next month in order to avoid "rattling investors."

3. July 4: Joe Biden predicted a plan would be formulated before the July 4 congressional recess, and at the time, Politico noted that "much of July" would still be needed for Congress to actually complete the complicated work of raising the debt ceiling.
4. July 16: On July 14, President Obama gave congressional leaders working on a plan "24 to 36 hours" to complete one that would pass both chambers.
5. July 22: Earlier in the month, the Obama administration had floated this as the absolute-last-minute date, in order to get a deal actually passed by Aug. 2.
6. July 24: Boehner originally wanted a new plan by yesterday, before the Asian markets opened; that didn't happen.

See the Atlantic Wire for more. (More debt ceiling stories.)