The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
McCarthy says negotiators are ‘closer’
Optimism comes as deadline to avert default moved to June 5.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Saturday Republican negotiators were “closer to an agreement” that would resolve the looming debt crisis but had not reached a deal with President Joe Biden.
He said there was no firm timeline for a final compromise that would raise the nation’s borrowing limit and avoid a catastrophic default while also making spending cuts that House Republicans are demanding. House negotiators left the Capitol after 2 a.m. and returned hours later.
“We’ll get it when it gets right,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said as he arrived on Capitol Hill.
McCarthy’s comments echoed the latest assessment from Biden, who said Friday evening that bargainers were “very close.”
Their optimism came as the deadline to avert a potentially disastrous default was pushed to June 5, giving the two sides a bit of extra time as they scramble for a deal.
Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups is a GOP effort to expand existing work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal aid programs, a longtime Republican goal Democrats have strenuously opposed. The White House said the Republican proposals were “cruel and senseless.”
McCarthy declined to elaborate on those discussions. One of his negotiators, Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, said there was “not a chance” Republicans might relent on the issue.
The extended “X-date, “or default deadline, was laid out in a letter Friday from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a brief reprieve from her earlier June 1 estimate. That didn’t stop Americans and the world from uneasily watching the negotiating brinkmanship that could throw the U.S. economy into chaos and sap world confidence in the nation’s leadership.
Yet Biden was upbeat as he departed for Camp David on Friday evening, saying: “It’s very close, and I’m optimistic.”
Failure to lift the borrowing limit, now $31 trillion, to pay the nation’s incurred bills, would send shock waves through the U.S. and global economy. Yellen said failure to act by the new date would “cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests.”
Anxious retirees and others were already making contingency plans for missed checks, with the next Social Security payments due this week.
Biden and McCarthy have seemed to be narrowing on a two-year budget-cutting deal that would also extend the debt limit into 2025 past the next presidential election. The contours of the deal have been taking shape to cut spending for 2024 and impose a 1% cap on spending growth for 2025.