US Debt Limit Nail-Biter Looms as Senate Ponders Tax Bill (1)

Chances of a close brush with a US payment default are growing as the Senate plans for time-consuming revisions to President Donald Trump’s sprawling, multi-trillion-dollar tax and spending package.

Republican congressional leaders attached an increase in the US legal debt limit to the president’s signature economic legislation. That gambit adds urgency to the enactment of a top-priority bill, but could put averting a default at the mercy of the complex legislative obstacle course that lies ahead.

Not only does the tax bill face a protracted process in the Senate, but Republican members have indicated that they expect to make ...