World News | Biden, congressional leaders meet again on debt limit as White House reassesses trip

WASHINGTON, May 17 (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden is considering cutting short an upcoming trip as the debt ceiling crisis looms, adding urgency to talks resumed at the White House on Tuesday with congressional leaders including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“We’re just getting started,” Biden said in brief remarks to reporters as others in the Oval Office — Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. , House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) sat quietly and calmly.

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Tuesday’s meeting is critical as negotiators eye a June 1 deadline when the Treasury Department says the U.S. could start defaulting on its debt. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the White House was considering cutting short Biden’s planned trip to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia, which begins Wednesday.

Biden will still attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan as planned, but may cancel a later stop. Kirby noted that Biden had already met with some leaders of the so-called “group of four” while in Japan – the purpose of his visit to Australia – although he cautioned that no final decision had been made.

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“If Congress does what it does to raise the debt ceiling the way they always have, we won’t even be discussing the impact of the debt ceiling debate on this trip,” Kirby said.

While Biden remained optimistic that “we’re going to be able to do this,” McCarthy urged the president to move faster and was pessimistic about the state of the negotiations. He and other Republicans demanded budget cuts in exchange for their support for raising the debt ceiling. Biden insisted that the two issues must never be linked.

“How much is too much?” McCarthy on Tuesday addressed the nation’s $31 trillion debt load as he pushed for stricter work requirements for recipients of government aid as a way to cut spending.

McCarthy did not suggest that Biden cancel foreign travel. But he said at the Capitol, “We have 16 days to go and I don’t think I’m going to spend eight days abroad.”

Even with the politics of the Democratic president and Republican speakers surrounding the issue — with Biden insisting he won’t negotiate the debt ceiling and McCarthy pushing to cut spending — areas appearing to be emerging for a possible deal.

For most of the past week, discussions have been held behind closed doors at the Capitol, with the White House and congressional staff debating how to craft a budget deal that would open a separate vote to boost the nation’s borrowing capacity to Avoid devastating defaults

Items in the talks include recovering about $30 billion in unspent COVID-19 funding, setting future budget caps, changing permitting rules to ease energy development and tightening work requirements for recipients of government aid, according to people familiar with the talks.

But congressional Democrats have grown increasingly concerned about the idea of ​​putting new job requirements on the table for recipients of government aid after Biden signaled he might be open to such changes. The White House remains opposed to changes to requirements for recipients of the Medicaid and food stamp programs, though it prefers changes for beneficiaries of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program.

During the morning caucus, House Democrats “categorically” rejected the idea of ​​more job demands and agreed to discuss the issue on condition of anonymity, according to a Democrat who participated in the private meeting.

Progressive lawmakers in particular have raised the issue. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, raised concerns but has yet to speak directly to Biden on the issue.

“We want to make sure that these negotiations don’t include cuts, work requirements, things that hurt people, people in rural areas, black people, brown people, indigenous people,” Jayapal said on Tuesday.

Aides said on Tuesday that Democratic leader Jeffreys’ staff was trying to reassure them in talks later on Monday, while another group of more centrist Democrats had signaled to their moderate Republican counterparts that they were prepared to do so. Do something to get a debt ceiling deal.

While McCarthy complained about the slow pace of the talks, saying he first met with Biden more than 100 days ago, Biden said it took so long for McCarthy to come up with his own proposal after the GOP failed to craft its own budget this year.

Biden insisted that Republicans must rule out a default and separate budget concerns from the need to raise the national debt ceiling.

The debt limit must be removed, as has been done countless times before, to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills that have been incurred.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday her estimate of a possible “X date” by which the U.S. could run out of cash remained unchanged, adding to pressure on Washington to reach a deal.

But in a letter to the House and Senate, Yellen left room for a possible extension of the state’s default, saying that “the actual date when Treasury exhausts its extraordinary measures could be days or weeks later than these estimates.”

“It’s critical that Congress act as quickly as possible,” Yellen said in a speech Tuesday at a conference of independent community bankers in the United States.

“In my assessment — and that of all economists — a U.S. default would be an economic and financial catastrophe,” she said.

Time is running out. The House and Senate have only a few days to pass the legislation.

“It’s time for principals to get more involved and bring them closer to them,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a Republican whip.

The details of a potential budget deal remain politically daunting, and it’s not at all clear whether they’ll be enough to satisfy McCarthy’s right-wing faction in the House, or whether they’ll be acceptable to a sizable number of Democrats who will almost certainly need a vote to secure any final deal.

Republicans led by McCarthy want Biden to accept spending cuts, limits on future spending and other policy changes proposed in a package passed by House Republicans last month. McCarthy said the House of Representatives was the only one that took action to raise the debt ceiling. But the House bill will almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Biden has said he would veto it.

Raising the debt ceiling would not authorize new federal spending. It only allows borrowing to pay for expenses that have already been approved by Congress. (Associated Press)

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