President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy will have a meeting at the White House to discuss the federal debt ceiling issue and the potential for a US default.
Hardline Republicans in Congress are delaying their approval of a bill that would allow the US to pay its debt until Democrats consent to continue spending reductions. The prospect of a default on the US economy according to the White House makes increasing the debt ceiling impossible to negotiate.
In a high-stakes crisis where members of both parties see opportunities to score political points before the US Treasury runs out of money to pay its bill this summer. Analysts are skeptical that the meeting between the Democratic president and Republican leader will quickly come to an end in this high-stake crisis.
McCarthy, a Republican from California, said he wanted to discuss both lifting the debt limits and spending. The House speaker vowed that Medicare and Social Security would not be reduced.
However, he went on Sunday to say that Republicans want to strengthen the expensive senior health and retirement benefit program, a claim that the White House described as code for making cuts.
McCarthy said that, although the president claimed he didn’t want to debate the cuts, he believes that the entire government must be set up to reach a solution.
He wants to sit down with the president and work out an arrangement so they can move forward and themselves on a route to balance. They could ensure that none of their debts are at risk.
This month, the US Treasury implemented exceptional cash management procedures to keep the government debt within the $31.4 trillion ceiling set by Congress.
However, the Treasury has stated that without a raise by early June, it may not have enough money to pay the government’s debts, posing the greatest threat of default since the 2011 crisis.
As part of a series of interactions with the incoming Congress, Biden had earlier promised to meet with McCarthy. The President’s office stated on Sunday that the discussions with McCarthy will cover a range of issues and be aimed at strengthening their working relationship.
McCarthy’s party has stepped up its investigations into Biden since regaining control of the House from Democrats in November.
McCarthy’s Republican party has come under fire from Biden, who is thinking about running for re-election in 2024.
Earlier this month, he called them crazy and threatened to reject their legislation, and charged them with attempting to increase the deficit while favoring billionaires, raising taxes on the middle class, and endangering well-liked welfare programs.
McCarthy and other Republicans in the House and Senate have declared that they will not back raising the debt ceiling in the absence of expenditure cutbacks or other budgetary measures.
It is unusual for Republicans to threaten to oppose attempts to raise the debt ceiling because such hikes have often been accepted by Congress on a bipartisan basis since the 1970s, except for a vote in 2011 that included budget cuts for several years in the future.
McCarthy overcame holdouts within his party and tensions that had tested the ability of the new GOP majority to govern to win the speakership on a record post-midnight 15th ballot early on January 7.
The announcement of the long-awaited White House meeting comes at a time when Washington is divided over the debt ceiling situation, and House Republicans are bracing themselves for conflict.
McCarthy has been trying to pressure Biden into engaging in negotiations to fulfill the pledges the GOP leader made to holdouts during his campaign for a speaker to reduce federal spending to 2022 budget levels, which would be a significant 8% cut.
The White House has made it clear that Biden will not consider making political compromises in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, which represents the country’s borrowing capacity.
The US crossed that threshold earlier this month, and the Treasury Department has taken exceptional steps to prevent a default for at least a few more months.
McCarthy did not go into specifics on demands, and he disregarded raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare benefits.
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The House Speaker said he would concentrate on discretionary spending, which has increased significantly over the past two years as a result of bipartisan legislation passed on infrastructure and semiconductors as well as a green energy bill passed by Democrats.
The Speaker agreed to rules that make it simpler for his party to remove him over policy disagreements.
A new wave of tea party House Republicans came to power a little more than ten years ago. It is eager to take on the Obama administration and push for cuts to federal spending and a reduction in the growing national debt.
Biden played a key role in the talks because he was the vice president at the time. But because the White House and House Republicans were unable to agree, a financial catastrophe resulted.
This time, Biden and his Democratic supporters in Congress are not interested in striking compromises with the Freedom Caucus and the new generation of hard-line Republicans.
McCarthy expressed his expectation that the president will be receptive to hearing after mentioning his prior attempts to negotiate spending cuts.
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