The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GOP decries ‘lack of urgency’ to resolve debt ceiling debate
Mccarthy urges House Republicans to stick together.
Debt ceiling WASHINGTON — negotiators for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy holed up for more talks at the Capitol on Tuesday, but Republicans warned of a “lack of urgency” at the White House to resolve the budget standoff in time to avert a potentially chaotic federal default.
With barely a week to go before a deadline as soon as June 1, the Democratic president and the Republican speaker were staring down a financial crisis. Failure to strike a deal would be unprecedented, and certain to throw U.S. financial markets into turmoil, inflicting economic pain at home and abroad.
Behind closed doors, Mccarthy urged his slim House Republican majority to “just stick together” despite their own factions as he negotiates the strongest deal possible for conservatives, according to lawmakers exiting the private session.
“We’re not there yet,” Mccarthy said, reiterating he won’t bring any bill forward “that doesn’t spend less than we spent this year.”
Rank-and-file Republican lawmakers were told they could proceed with their planned recess week around Memorial Day away from Washington, set to begin after Thursday’s session. But Mccarthy warned them to be on 24-hour call to return for voting on any deal.
Dragging into a second week, the negotiations over raising the nation’s debt limit, now at $31 trillion, were never supposed to arrive at this point.
The White House insisted early on it was unwilling to barter over the need to pay the nation’s bills, demanding that Congress simply lift the ceiling, as it has done many times with no strings attached.
But the newly elected speaker, Mccarthy, visited Biden at the Oval Office in February, urging the president to come to the negotiating table on a budget package that would reduce spending and the nation’s POST-COVID ballooning deficits in exchange for the vote to allow future debt.
Both men said late Monday after a crucial meeting at the White House — after the president returned from the Group of Seven summit in Japan — that talks were productive.
But with time short to strike a deal, they are laboring to come up with a compromise that could be approved quickly by the Republican House and the Democratic Senate and be signed into law.
Negotiations are focused on finding agreement over a 2024 budget year limit. Republicans insist that next year’s government spending be less than it is now, but the White House instead is offering to freeze spending at current 2023 numbers.
Agreement on that topline spending level is vital — to enable Mccarthy to deliver spending restraint for conservatives while not being so severe that it would chase off the Democratic votes that would be needed in the divided Congress.
The White House continues to argue that deficits can be reduced by ending tax breaks for wealthier households and some corporations, but Mccarthy said he told the president at their February meeting that raising revenue from tax hikes is off the table.
The negotiators are also debating the duration of a 1% cap on annual spending growth going forward, with Republicans dropping their demand for a 10-year cap to six years but the White House offering only one year.