US President Joe Biden and House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy prepared for key debt ceiling talks yesterday, hoping to avoid a devastating default in just over two weeks. .
Before the meeting scheduled for today, the two parties do not appear to be close to an agreement.
The White House is not ruling out annual spending caps that Republicans say must accompany any increase in the country’s debt limit, set at $31.4 trillion.
Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, say they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to deep spending cuts.
Failure to raise the cap (a necessary measure to cover expenses and taxes previously approved by Congress) could trigger a default and a severe economic recession.
Despite the gravity of the situation, McCarthy mentioned that he sees little sign of progress ahead of the meeting.
They’re not doing it right. I don’t see any progress and I am very concerned about the date we are on (…) We have to get to big issues and we have to go through the House of Representatives and the Senate, there is definitely not enough progress to see that, “McCarthy declared yesterday to the press.
Biden made no public comment yesterday on the status of the negotiations, after saying on Sunday that he believes both sides want to reach an agreement.
Biden will meet with McCarthy; Chuck Summer, Democratic Senate Majority Leader; Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, and Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, a day before their departure for the Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Japan.
The trip will give both sides little time to reach an agreement before the United States runs out of money to pay its bills, which Treasury officials say could happen as early as June 1.
