(Washington) About a week before a possible US default, as negotiations between the White House and the Republican opposition turn sour, the rating agency Fitch has placed the United States’ AAA rating “on review”. United, the highest possible.

“Failure to reach an agreement […] would be a negative sign for governance in general and the willingness of the United States to meet its obligations on time,” Fitch said in a statement Wednesday.

The agency takes a dim view of the “political tensions that hamper” the negotiations, but still assures “expect a resolution in time”.

Despite days and nights of discussions, President Joe Biden’s teams and Republican camp negotiators have yet to find a budget compromise.

“This is a fabricated crisis,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, slamming the Conservatives’ refusal in Congress to vote to raise the debt ceiling, a necessary maneuver to avoid a bankruptcy.

While the teams of advisers on both sides count the billions and dissect the budget items, she attacked the right wing of the Republican Party.

“They’re now saying out loud what they’re thinking, talking about holding America’s financial credibility hostage,” she charged, referring to recent remarks by a radical right-wing lawmaker in the House of Representatives.

The Democratic president made his Republican opponent Kevin McCarthy, boss of the lower house, a proposal on certain expenses that would reduce the federal government bill by “more than 1000 billion dollars over ten years” according to the White House.

This would come on top of the deficit reduction already promised by Joe Biden, which amounts to 3,000 billion over ten years.

The White House is ready to cap public spending for two years, where Republicans are asking for a longer period.

“I think we can make progress today,” Kevin McCarthy assured Wednesday, while once again criticizing Joe Biden’s approach to this issue.

“It’s not my fault that the Democrats can’t renounce their spending,” he said, again blaming the government for waiting until the last moment to negotiate.

“As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been saying for months, these political acrobatics around the debt ceiling are seriously hurting American businesses and families, driving up short-term interest rates for taxpayers, and threatening the ratings of states.” States,” Lily Adams, a spokeswoman for the ministry, responded to Fitch’s announcement.

“Tonight’s warning underscores the need for joint and swift action by both parties in Congress to raise or suspend this cap,” she added.

The American president had initially simply ruled out discussing under the threat of bankruptcy.

He has now also offered to reallocate funds that were originally earmarked to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Conservatives condition their vote on an agreement on a cut in public spending.

If Congress — divided between the Democratic Senate and the Republican House of Representatives — does not act, “it seems almost certain that we cannot go beyond the beginning of June,” recalled Janet Yellen.

In particular, Ms. Yellen said, the organization of “our payment system (which) was put in place in order to pay the bills” of the government, “not to decide which bills to pay or not”, thus leaving the Treasury no margin to put, for example, debt-related payments first, at the expense of other payments.

Without an agreement, “we will default on some of our obligations and that is not acceptable,” she insisted.

From June 1, the United States could therefore find itself in default of payment, that is to say unable to honor its financial commitments, whether in terms of salaries, pensions or reimbursements to their creditors.

The Secretary of the Treasury added that her services would provide Congress with additional details very soon regarding the date on which the country will actually be in default.

This unprecedented scenario would, according to economists, be synonymous with a massive recession and market rout in the United States, with possible contagion to the entire global economy.