WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said June 1 remains a "hard deadline" for raising the federal debt limit, with the odds quite low that the government will collect enough revenue to bridge to June 15, when more tax receipts are due.
Yellen, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, said there would be hard choices to make about payments to Americans if Congress failed to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling before Treasury ran out of cash and was forced to default.
So I think that that's a hard deadline," she said.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called Republicans' latest offers in talks on lifting the government's debt ceiling "unacceptable," but said he would be willing to cut spending together with tax adjustments to reach a deal.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.