(CNN)
The US government is hurtling toward a potential financial crisis, and no one in Washington seems to know how to stop it.
As lawmakers trade fire over contempt votes and impeachment, there's been no progress toward reaching a budget agreement or extending the federal government's ability to borrow before September, when the money runs out. That's raising the ugly prospect of more than $100 billion in mandatory cuts as well as an unprecedented default on US debt -- a situation that could trigger a worldwide economic catastrophe.
It's a mess everyone knows is coming, and yet no one seems to have a plan -- at least at the moment -- for averting disaster.
"It's one of those cartoonish anvil-over-head moments," one senior GOP congressional aide told CNN. "We all look around knowingly like 'Man, we're about to get crushed by this,' but nobody's really sure how to get out from underneath it right now."
Content by Morgan Stanley
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