With the U.S. headed quickly toward an economic meltdown this month if Congress refuses to pay the nation's bills, an impatient-sounding President Joe Biden had some harsh words for Capitol Hill Republicans on Monday. "Hypocritical." "Dangerous." "Disgraceful." Not to mention "playing Russian roulette with the American economy." Republicans voted for tax cuts and spending packages that added nearly $8 trillion to the federal debt during the Donald Trump administration, Biden said, briefly breaking his practice of not mentioning his brand-conscious predecessor by name. And now, Biden said, they don't want to pay the check by raising the debt ceiling. Raising the debt ceiling does not permit any future spending. It merely gives the government the formal authority to pay bills already incurred. "They won't raise it even though defaulting on the debt would result in self-inflicted wounds that would take our economy over a cliff," the president said in remarks at the White House. Those consequences – detailed also in an independent Moody's Analytics report – include increased unemployment, higher mortgage and credit card interest rates, and the holdup of payments such as Social Security and veterans benefits. "What they're doing is reckless and dangerous in my view," Biden added, saying the impact could hit U.S. consumers as early as this week. Raising the debt ceiling was once a pro-forma and bipartisan vote. But with virtually every vote on Capitol Hill turned into a party-line power struggle, the measure is still unpassed. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned repeatedly that the country has until Oct. 18 before officially, and for the first time, defaulting on its debts. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has insisted that Democrats do the deed on their own, arguing that the majority party doesn't need the help of minority lawmakers to pass it. The reality is more complicated: Senate Democrats can't pass anything when the GOP threatens to filibuster – meaning a supermajority of 60 votes would be required for passage. The only way for Democrats to get an increase in the debt ceiling to pass is to do it through a complicated process called budget reconciliation. That measure cannot be filibustered but also takes weeks to do, given how many amendments and votes are involved in the behemoth bill. In a letter to the president Monday, McConnell dug in his heels on the GOP strategy – and cast blame on the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.