NO ACCORD IN ‘PRODUCTIVE’ MEETING
Biden, McCarthy express optimism for debt-ceiling deal
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, expressed optimism Monday that they could break the partisan stalemate that has prevented action to avert a default on the nation’s debt, but they remained far apart on a deal to raise the debt limit as Democrats resisted Republicans’ demands for spending cuts in exchange.
The two met face to face at the White House for the second time in two weeks in a show of goodwill after a weekend of behind-thescenes clashes among negotiators, punctuated by a move by Republicans on Friday to halt the talks and accusations by both sides that the other was being unreasonable.
With Biden back from a summit meeting in Japan, the tenor appeared to have changed considerably.
“We don’t have an agreement yet,” McCarthy told reporters at the White House after the meeting. “But I did feel like the discussion was productive,” he said, adding later that he believed the tone of the talks was “better than any other time we’ve had discussions.”
“I believe we can still get there,” McCarthy said. “I believe we can get it done.”
He said he expected to speak with Biden daily until a deal could be struck.
With a default looming as soon as June 1, Biden and McCarthy began their latest meeting sounding upbeat about finding common ground to avoid economic catastrophe and left dispatching their top advisers to hammer out an agreement in the coming days.
“We still have some disagreements, but I think we may be able to get where we have to go,” Biden said as the two sat down in the Oval Office. “We both know we have a significant responsibility.”
Biden said in a statement after the meeting that the talks were “productive.”
“We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement,” he added, saying he and his negotiating team would continue talking with McCarthy and his.
Still, the two sides remained at loggerheads. The White House has called Republicans’ demands for spending cuts extreme, while McCarthy and his aides have accused White House officials of being unreasonable.
The number of legislative days for Congress to vote to raise the debt ceiling before the projected deadline is rapidly dwindling. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday reiterated her warning to Congress that the U.S. could exceed its authority to borrow to pay its bills as soon as June 1.
And Republicans hinted that no deal was likely to materialize until a default was truly imminent. Asked on Monday evening what it would take to break the deadlock, McCarthy replied simply: “June 1.”
Chief among the outstanding issues is how much to spend overall next fiscal year on discretionary programs and how long any spending caps should be in place. Republicans want to allow military spending to increase while cutting other programs. But they have shown flexibility around how long they would seek to cap spending overall, coming down from their initial demand of a decade to six years.
That is longer than Biden wants. White House officials have proposed holding both military and other spending — which includes education, scientific research and environmental protection — constant over the next two years.
“These are tough issues,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and a key ally of McCarthy’s who attended the White House meeting. “A directive to cut spending year over year is the toughest thing to do in Washington, D.C. But that is the speaker’s directive to his negotiating team. It is our expectation to be able to get that.”
Hard-right members of McCarthy’s conference have continued to pressure the speaker not to accept anything less than the spending cuts that House Republicans passed in their debt limit bill last month, which would have amounted to a reduction of an average of 18 percent over a decade.
Once negotiators agree to a deal, it will take time to translate it into legislative text. McCarthy has promised that he will give lawmakers 72 hours to review the bill, and said Monday that he believed negotiators would need to agree to a compromise this week in order to pass legislation raising the debt ceiling before the projected June 1 deadline.
Lawmakers in the House were still left uncertain about when they would need to be present to cast a vote to avert a default. The House, as of Monday evening, was set to depart Washington beginning Thursday afternoon before the Memorial Day weekend.