WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the afternoon on Monday to discuss how to avoid a debt crisis. There are only a few days before the Treasury Department may not be able to pay its bills.
McCarthy, the Republican Speaker , described the call as “productive”. The president also requested to meet with McCarthy.
The scheduled meeting is at 5:30 pm. The meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET, comes after a few days of frantic staff-level negotiation between the White House, and Republican leaders. It also comes just 10 days before Treasury Department’s deadline June 1, when Congress must act to avoid the first ever default on U.S. government debt.
One of the biggest questions surrounding the high-stakes meeting is whether Biden and McCarthy can reach a deal that has the votes to pass the Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate in a short period of time. If a bill passes with a majority of Democratic votes in the House will McCarthy be faced with an uprising by his hardline members?
Biden spoke about the current state of negotiations in Hiroshima. He argued that the “extreme positions’ of Republicans were preventing progress.
“I’ve done my part,” Biden told reporters. Now it’s up to the other side. “There are other extreme positions because what they have already proposed is quite frankly unacceptable.”
McCarthy has indicated that he will follow the 72-hour rule when putting a new bill to a vote. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) adjourned last week the chamber for a scheduled recess, but told senators they should be prepared to return with 24-hour notice.
In recent days, negotiations have been tumultuous over the main dispute about how much money the federal government will spend in the upcoming fiscal year. McCarthy and Republicans are seeking a significant cut in spending that Democrats have refused to make. Democrats calculate Republicans’ proposed discretionary spending reductions of 22.2%, if military programs were exempted. This is what many Republicans want.
McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry told reporters on his arrival at the Capitol Monday that the Sunday call between Speaker Biden and him was “productive” and “it brought us back together in the same room.”
McCarthy will have to negotiate with the conservative hardliners who make up his small majority. They are pushing for more strict spending cuts, and insist that the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which was passed by the House, is the standard against which any agreement should be measured.
Biden’s party’s left is angry that he has accepted some GOP demands such as tighter requirements for federal assistance programs. Unhappy with the negotiations, many progressives have called for the president to use the 14th Amendment in order to tackle the debt limit unilaterally.
“I am looking at the 14th Amendment to see if we have the power.” Biden told a Hiroshima press conference on Sunday that he believes he has the authority. The question is, could it be done in time to ensure that it would not be appealed and, as a result, passed the date in question and still default? This is a question I believe has not been answered.
Biden stated that the Republicans, after progressing in negotiations, had “retreated” with a “proposal that was much more limited than what they had discussed or agreed upon.”
“And now, I don’t even know where we did it — but we again gave a counterproposal,” said the president on Sunday. “I realize this is ridiculous, but we did it.” “I’m eager to hear what you think of our offer.”
Biden said Republicans had ruled out revenue raising measures or tax increases. He said Democrats stood by this disagreement.
Biden seemed less confident that Republicans would take whatever steps were necessary to avoid default. He warned that “he cannot guarantee” that Republicans will not force the government into a situation in which it is unable pay its bills.
Contributors included Frank Thorp V, Molly Roecker and Alexandra Bacallao.
