By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress on Wednesday had just two days left before the federal government begins shutting many of its operations unless Democrats manage to pass a bill providing new funding for the fiscal year that begins on Friday.

The Senate and House Democrats were expected to vote for temporary funding, which could extend through December 3, in hopes of winning support from Republicans.

One crisis would be avoided by President Joe Biden’s Democrats, who campaigned for responsible government and a platform after the turbulent four years of Republican Donald Trump’s presidency.

There are more dangers ahead, as progressive House Democrats vow to vote against the $1 trillion infrastructure bill due to intraparty fighting over a larger social spending bill.

The threat that the federal government will reach its $28.4 billion debt ceiling in October 18th is behind all of this. This could lead to a catastrophic default.

Biden cancelled his Wednesday trip to Chicago in order to negotiate with Congress.

While the topic of bitter bipartisan fighting, the House may also vote for a bill temporarily lifting the debt limit.

The Senate Republicans refused to support it and told Democrats to act on their own. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded bipartisan cooperation to tackle debts accrued during Democratic or Republican administrations.

Democrats were left scrambling for a solution to prevent a default on federal debt that would likely cause financial markets to crash.

There are many options, but it is possible to take it to the bank. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine predicts that Democrats won’t allow the government to default even though Republicans may not support it.

Goldman Sachs, an investment bank (NYSE:), described this month’s standoff as the “most risky debt-limit deadline in a decade.”

DIVISIONS BETWEEN MODERATES, PROGRESSIVES

Amid all this, Biden is holding intensive negotiations with his fellow Democrats in Congress on a $3.5 trillion bill to expand social programs and address climate change. Numerous senior Democrats said the bill would need to be reduced in order to become law.

After a meeting of 90 minutes with Biden, moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin said that “we’re still meeting as good faith”. After a 90-minute meeting with Biden, Joe Manchin stated that the total dollar amount of the bill had not been discussed and was still unheard.

Due to wide-ranging disagreements among Democrats moderates and progressives about the bill’s scope and size, it was likely they wouldn’t meet their goal of presenting the bill to the rank-and-file by the end of the week.

When Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker pulled back on her promises to pass the broad-ranging legislation in conjunction with the $1 trillion infrastructure investment bill which had already passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote, it became more complicated.

The Progressive (NYSE: ) Democrats threatened to vote against smaller bills unless they are able to pass the bigger one.

Representative Pramila Jaipal, head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Tuesday said that she was concerned about the delay in the vote for the infrastructure bill.

Moderate Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, referring to the infrastructure bill, struck a more optimistic tone, saying: “We’ll get the votes, we’ll land the plane and we’ll get this done.”