Biden bid to break US debt deadlock

President Joe Biden was intervening personally on Sunday to try to break the US debt ceiling deadlock with a call to the top Republican leader before the clock ticks down on a feared national default.

The White House said that Mr Biden, winding up a threeday G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, would call Speaker Kevin McCarthy as soon as the summit ended.

“President Biden has continued to closely track negotiations on a bipartisan budget framework and the pressing need for congress to act to avert default,” the official said.

“He received an update from his team both last night and this morning on the status of negotiations. The President directed his team to coordinate with Speaker McCarthy to schedule a call.”

The call will happen once Mr Biden has given a closing press conference set to start about 6.15pm (local time) in Hiroshima, or early morning in Washington, the official said.

It wasn’t clear if this would be on the ground or once Mr Biden was on the way home aboard Air Force One. Mr Biden was to travel from Japan to Papua New Guinea and Australia next week, but cut short his trip due to the crisis.

The Treasury Department says that the government could run out of money and default on its $31 trillion debt as early as June 1 if congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives, does not authorise more borrowing.

The debt ceiling raise is usually an uncontroversial annual procedure, but this year the increasingly hard-right Republican Party has turned the threat of default into a powerful lever to try to force Mr Biden to accept making heavy spending cuts. Mr Biden has refused, accusing his opponents of putting the US economy at risk for political point scoring.

Discussions appeared to be at an impasse overnight Saturday in Washington, as both sides traded accusations.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the latest Republican demands were “a big step back and contained a set of extreme partisan demands that could never pass both houses of congress”.