treasury secretary janet yellen on tuesday warned of severe economic consequences if congress does not address the debt ceiling “it is unlikely that the federal government would be able to issue payments to millions of americans including our military families and seniors who rely on social security” she said in remarks prepared for delivery to the sacramento metropolitan chamber of commerce “in the longer term a default would raise the cost of borrowing into perpetuity” she said yellen repeated that congress should raise or suspend the debt limit “without conditions” this week house speaker kevin mccarthy is