Biden meeting with congressional leaders over debt ceiling

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is ready to discuss debt ceiling with congressional leaders at the White House during a high-level session with echoes across the globe as early outlines of a potential deal began to emerge from painstakingly slow negotiations.

Increase shares, Tuesday afternoon session goes like Biden is preparing to leave for the G7 summit in Japan, where the US leader will be on the world stage this weekend. President and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy trying to reach a budget deal before the US Treasury runs out of cash to keep paying the country’s billscould happen as soon as June 1.

While Biden remains optimistic that “we’ll be able to do this,” McCarthy is pushing the president to act faster. Republican speakers say they need to reach an agreement soon to avoid default. Expectations are low that a deal is near. Instead, it is more likely that negotiations between the staff will continue while the president is abroad.

McCarthy told reporters on Monday: “I don’t see progress going on.

But Biden was upbeat, saying over the weekend, “They, like us, want a deal.”

That is second time in a week that Biden met with McCarthy of California and other congressional leaders at the White House. Biden is facing a politically divided Congress over the debt ceiling for the first time, a test for both the president and McCarthy, the new spokesman, as they work to avert an economic crisis may occur as a result of a federal default. The meeting will also include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Even as the Democratic president and Republican speaker swirls around politics – with Biden insisting he’s not negotiating the debt ceiling and McCarthy working hard to hit spending cuts – more areas of possible agreement seem to be emerging.

Negotiations have taken place on Capitol Hill for much of the past week, closed-door discussions in which the White House and congressional staffers are discussing what is needed to craft a budget deal that opens up a private vote to enhance the nation’s borrowing capacity, currently set at $31 trillion.

Among the items on the table: recoup around $30 billion in untapped COVID-19 money, impose future budget ceilings, approve permissive reforms to ease energy development, and set out Job requirements are reinforced for recipients of government aid, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

McCarthy has complained that negotiations are going slowly, saying he first met Biden more than 100 days ago and that the president should focus more on domestic issues.

“An American president should focus on America’s solutions,” McCarthy said ahead of Biden’s trip.

But Biden insists Republicans must rule out default and consider budget issues separate from the need to raise the national debt limit. The president has said that McCarthy took a long time to come up with his own proposal after Republicans failed to come up with their own budget this year.

Debt limits must be lifted, as has been done countless times before, to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills that have accrued.

Under pressure for Washington to strike a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that the agency’s estimates were unchanged on the possible X-day when the United States could run out of cash. – perhaps as early as June 1.

But Yellen, in a letter to the House and Senate, left open the possibility of an extension of time on the national default, saying that “the actual date the Treasury Department exhausted its special measures could may be days or weeks later than these estimates.”

She said she would update Congress next week “as more information becomes available.”

Time is running out. Congress has only a few days when both the House and Senate meet to pass legislation.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a Republican, said: “It’s time for principals to get more involved, get their inner circle out there. “My impression is that they have too many cooks in the kitchen, too many people in the room and not the right people.”

Details of a potential budget deal remain politically difficult, and it’s not clear whether they go far enough to please McCarthy’s far-right in the House or will be accepted by a large number of people. Democrats, who will almost certainly need votes to secure any deal. final agreement.

McCarthy-led Republicans want Biden to accept their proposals for spending cuts, limiting future spending and making other policy changes in the coming months. package passed last month by House Republicans. McCarthy says the House is the only house that has acted to raise the debt ceiling. But the House bill is almost certain to fail in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, and Biden has said he will veto it.

Over the weekend, Biden signaled that he might be willing to accept tougher job demands on some government aid programs, which Republicans are proposing as part of a bill. discussion is going on. He has said he will not accept anything that takes away people’s health care coverage.

An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It will only allow borrowing to pay for what Congress has passed.

As June 1 approaches, Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned of a “significant risk” of default in the first two weeks of next month.

The CBO noted that if Treasury cash flows and the “special measures” the department is currently using can continue to pay the bills through June 15, the government may be able to fund the bill. its activities until the end of July. That’s because tax revenue is expected to arrive in mid-June, and other measures should provide the federal government with enough cash for at least another few weeks.

___ Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.