WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to speak at the White House with legislative leaders about capping the federal government’s borrowing limit, a high-profile session with global repercussions at a time when outlines of a possible agreement despite the excruciatingly slow pace of negotiations.
The session on Tuesday afternoon will take place before Biden leaves this week for Japan, where he will participate in the Group of Seven summit. The president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are trying to reach a budget deal before the US Treasury runs out of cash to keep paying the nation’s bills, which could happen as late as June 1.
Although Biden has remained optimistic, saying “we can do it,” McCarthy is pressing the president to move faster to avoid a crisis. The Republican legislator says that it is necessary to reach an agreement soon and thus avoid falling into arrears. There are not many expectations that the agreement is so close. Talks between officials on both sides are more likely to continue while Biden is abroad.
“I just don’t see any progress,” McCarthy told reporters Monday.
But Biden was optimistic, noting over the weekend: “There is a desire on his part and on ours to reach an agreement.”
It is the second time in a week that Biden has met with McCarthy and other legislative leaders at the White House. Biden confronts a divided Congress for the first time on the debt ceiling issue, a test for both him and McCarthy as they try to avoid the economic crisis that would ensue if the federal government defaults. . Also present at the meeting will be Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; the Republican leader of the upper house, Mitch McConnell, and Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Even as Biden and McCarthy tussle over the political issues of the matter — with the president insisting he won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling, and McCarthy trying to get Biden to concede spending cuts — there are several areas of potential compromise. that seem to be emerging.
There were closed-door talks on Capitol Hill for much of the past week. At them, White House staff and Congress discussed what it will take to craft a budget deal that would authorize a vote to raise the country’s debt ceiling, which currently stands at $31 trillion.
____
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.