US debt limit meetings pause; McCarthy says talks going ‘so-so’
U.S. debt limit negotiators aren’t planning to meet on Saturday, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the White House accused Republicans of being unwilling to negotiate.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was spotted walking on the National Mall in Washington and was asked how the talks were going. “So-so,” he said. President Joe Biden signaled earlier Saturday he remains confident the U.S. government can avoid a catastrophic default.
Republican lawmakers designated by McCarthy and senior White House officials last met on Friday evening after a Republican walkout that tempered optimism about an emerging deal and drove down stocks. McCarthy said participants took a pause because the White House “will not acknowledge that they’re spending too much.”
The White House sought to turn the tables on Saturday, with Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates saying, “House Republicans are now taking the American economy hostage” and “threatening to single-handedly trigger an unprecedented default.”
They should “come back to the table in good faith,” Bates said in a statement.
Republicans and the White House are battling over spending cuts, which GOP lawmakers demand as the price for raising the federal borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the U.S. could lose its ability to meet all its payment obligations by June 1.
The federal government’s coffers have been dwindling to the lowest level in almost a year-and-a-half, showing how the window for resolving the partisan standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt cap is narrowing. The Treasury Department said Friday it had run through all but about $92 billion of its authorized extraordinary measures as of May 17.
Comments by Republicans on Friday also suggested that major hurdles remain.
“This was a candid discussion about realistic numbers, a realistic path forward, and something that truly changes the trajectory of this country’s spending and debt,” said Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, McCarthy’s hand-picked negotiator.
Asked if he’s confident the parties would reach a deal in time to prevent default, Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key McCarthy ally, said “no.”
Biden, who’s meeting with other world leaders at a Group of Seven summit in Japan as the debt-ceiling deadline inches closer, downplayed renewed concern that the endgame in Washington may fail.
“Not at all,” he said Saturday in Hiroshima when asked if he was concerned about the state of the talks. Negotiations go “in stages,” Biden said, adding he still believes “we’ll be able to avoid a default and we’ll get something decent done.”
The debt-limit fight, which could trigger a first-ever U.S. payments default, threatens to inflict pain on the global economy and has shadowed Biden’s overseas trip.
The president postponed travel to Australia and Papua New Guinea to return to Washington for the final stages of negotiation, cutting short a trip designed to advance Biden’s goals of countering China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Biden said he was sorry for the postponement.
“I truly apologize to you for having you to come here rather than me be in Australia right now,” the president told Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the G-7. “But we have a little thing at home I got to pay attention to.”
Justin Sink contributed.