President Joe Biden is set to speak at the White House with legislative leaders on capping the federal government’s borrowing limit, a high-profile session with global ramifications as an outline of a possible deal emerges despite a terrifying slowdown in talks. It is engaged. ,
The session will take place on Tuesday afternoon before Biden leaves for Japan this week, where he will attend the Group of Seven summit. The president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are trying to reach a budget deal before the US Treasury runs out of cash to continue paying the nation’s bills, which could happen as soon as June 1.
Although Biden remains optimistic, saying “we can do this,” McCarthy is pressing the president to move quickly to avoid a crisis. The Republican lawmaker says it is important to reach an agreement soon and thus avoid falling into arrears. There are not many expectations that the agreement is so close. Talks between officials from both sides are likely to continue while Biden is abroad.
“I don’t see any progress,” McCarthy told reporters on Monday. But Biden was optimistic over the weekend: “There is a desire on his part and on our part to reach an agreement.”
This is the second time in a week that Biden has met with McCarthy and other legislative leaders at the White House. Biden faces a divided Congress for the first time on the issue of the debt ceiling, a test for both him and McCarthy as they try to avoid the economic crisis that would ensue if the federal government defaults. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will also be present at the meeting; Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Upper House, and Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Despite Biden and McCarthy feuding over the political issues of the matter — the president insisting he will not negotiate the debt ceiling, and McCarthy trying to get Biden to cut spending — there are several areas of potential agreement. Is emerging
For the last one week, talks were going on behind closed doors on Capitol Hill. At them, White House staffers and Congress discussed what it would take to craft a budget deal that would authorize a vote to raise the country’s debt ceiling, which currently stands at $31 trillion.
