What's behind the looming 'x-date' on the US debt limit?

In January, the U.S. government ran up against its legal borrowing capacity of $31.381 trillion, and the Treasury Department began implementing “extraordinary measures” to avoid a default. That started the clock on the “x-date” when those measures would be exhausted. The x-date could be reached as early as June, depending on how much money the IRS collected in April from people filing their taxes. Sounds ominous, right? It might be time to get scared as more than three months have passed with little progress. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is calling for trillions of dollars in spending cuts over the decade in return, while President Joe Biden insists that any talks about government finances not occur with the threat of an economy-wrecking default hanging over lawmakers.