Washington, May 2 (IANS): The jobs, benefits and financial security of millions of Americans could start disappearing in less than a month as the Republican House leverages a debt showdown to try to force big spending cuts on President Joe Biden, the media reported.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday issued a stark warning that the US government could run out of money to pay its obligations as soon as June 1 unless Congress raises its borrowing authority.

Failure to do so could trigger a domestic and international financial catastrophe, CNN reported.

Yellen wrote to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that unless Congress acted, it would cause "severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests".

Experts have warned of a potential crisis on the scale of the 2008 financial meltdown, with the threat of benefits not being paid to veterans and senior citizens, and halts to military funding and vital government programs, CNN reported.

Her letter swiftly turned what has for weeks been a theoretical threat of a default sometime this summer into a real-time nightmare with a flashing deadline, leaving little time for McCarthy and Biden to find a way to save the economy.

Yellen's letter may also go some way to sparking alarm on Wall Street about the situation after a period in which investors appeared sanguine that the perennially dysfunctional Congress would likely step back from the precipice at the last minute, CNN reported.