The US presidency, in the middle of a showdown with the Republican opposition over the public debt, predicted an economic disaster on Wednesday if the US is forced to declare a default on payments for an extended period of time.

President Joe Biden’s economic advisers estimate that if the world’s largest economy defaults for an extended period of time, it will lose more than 8 million jobs and see its GDP plunge by more than 6%.

The stock market would lose 45% of its value in the third quarter, the presidency’s Council of Economic Advisors predicted.

They pointed out that even if the US federal government declared a default for a short period of time, the US economy would experience an increase in unemployment and a recession, even a small one.

The presidency released the disaster scenario at a time when President Biden is trying to increase pressure on the right on the national debt.

The octogenarian Democrat says that Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, must urgently and unconditionally vote with Democrats to raise the federal government’s borrowing ceiling.

He called the four congressional leaders representing the two parties to a meeting next Tuesday, May 9.

The opposition demands that in order to approve any increase in public debt there must be drastic cuts in public spending over a decade.

The question of raising the debt limit, a peculiarity of the USA, was considered a mere formality for a long time, but it suddenly found itself at the center of political controversy during the years of the presidency of Barack Obama.

The federal government has actually already exceeded the infamous $31 trillion mark since mid-January, and so far has been handling the problem with accounting maneuvers.

However, the Ministry of Finance warns that if there is no agreement and vote in Congress, the federal government may be forced from June 1 to proceed with drastic cuts in various categories of social spending. Before falling into the declaration of default, an unprecedented state bankruptcy, a situation that would have consequences not only for the American but also for the world economy.