Key talks to resume today on debt limit

Biden, McCarthy agree to meet to negotiate way forward to avert default on nation's borrowing

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN >> President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed Sunday to meet this afternoon to try to jump-start talks aimed at averting a default on the nation's debt, capping a tumultuous stretch of negotiations that faltered over the weekend as the two sides clashed over Republicans' demands to cut spending in exchange for raising the debt limit.

McCarthy announced the meeting, which was to take place after Biden's return from the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima after he concluded a call with the president Sunday sounding more sanguine than before about the prospects for a deal. The speaker said House GOP and White House negotiators would continue talks at the Capitol later in the afternoon to lay the groundwork.

Biden “walked through some of the things that he's still looking at, he's hearing from his members; I walked through things I'm looking at,” McCarthy said. “I felt that part was productive. But look — there's no agreement. We're still apart.”

Negotiators are working against a punishing clock. The debt ceiling, the statutory limit on the government's power to borrow to pay its obligations, is projected to be reached as soon as June 1.

Biden and McCarthy are negotiating over a fiscal package that would raise the limit, which Republicans have refused to do without spending cuts. They remain far apart on key issues, including on caps for federal spending, new work requirements for some recipients of federal antipoverty assistance and funding meant to help the IRS crack down on high earners and corporations that evade taxes.

Biden said Sunday that he believed he had the power to challenge the constitutionality of the nation's borrowing limit but that he did not believe such a challenge could succeed in time to avoid a default on federal debt if lawmakers did not raise the limit soon.

“I think we have the authority,” Biden said at a news conference in Hiroshima. “The question is could it be done and invoked in time.”

Biden added that after the current crisis is resolved, he hopes to “find a rationale and take it to the courts” to decide whether the debt limit violates a clause in the 14th Amendment stipulating that the United States must pay its debts. He also said that, while meeting with world leaders, he had not been able to assure them that America would not default on its debt — an event that economists say could set off a financial crisis that would sweep the globe.

“I can't guarantee that they will not force a default by doing something outrageous,” Biden said, referring to congressional Republicans.