(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



McCarthy calls Biden meeting ‘productive’ and ‘professional,’ but no debt ceiling deal yet [1]

['Christina Wilkie', 'In']

Date: 2023-05-22

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) looks on as US President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on the debt ceiling, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 22, 2023. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he had a "productive" and "professional" meeting with President Joe Biden on how to raise the debt ceiling, but that the two did not reach a deal Monday. "I think the tone tonight was better than any other night we've had discussions," McCarthy said outside the West Wing following the hourlong meeting. The meeting was also helpful to the negotiating teams who are hammering out the complex deal. "It told us in the negotiating team a little more of the details we need to get to a package that can pass Congress," said GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, N.C., who is negotiating on McCarthy's behalf. "To hear the speaker and the president air their views directly with one another, no acrimony, it was productive and it was a meaningful discussion and helpful to us getting a construct that can protect everyone's equities," McHenry said. McCarthy said that both teams were going to "come back together and work through the night" on a compromise deal. "The president and I know the deadline, so I think we're going to talk every day ... until we get this done." Ahead of the meeting, Biden emphasized that both men needed a deal that "we can sell to both sides" of a closely divided, hyper partisan Congress. "We still have some disagreements, but I think we may be able to get where we have to go," Biden said at the start of a highly anticipated sit down. McCarthy shared Biden's cautious optimism. "I think at the end of the day, we can find common ground, make our economy stronger, take care of this debt, but more importantly, get this government moving again to curb inflation, make us less dependent upon China and make our appropriations system work."

U.S. President Joe Biden hosts debt limit talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 22, 2023. Leah Millis | Reuters

Shortly before the meeting, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed June 1 as the earliest date the U.S. could be at serious risk of debt default. Yellen's latest letter to congressional leaders was similar to the letters she has sent throughout the spring. But on Monday, there were two subtle differences. The first was that Yellen characterized a potential debt default in early June as "highly likely," whereas last week it was merely "likely." In Monday's letter, she also notably excluded a line from last week, which predicted that the emergency actions Treasury is taking to cover government debts could extend the default deadline into June. "The actual date Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of days or weeks later than these estimates," Yellen wrote in her letter to congressional leaders a week ago. But by Monday, her apparent optimism had vanished. McCarthy said Monday that he believed June 1 to be a stone cold deadline. He also acknowledged that the reality of the legislative process has started to weigh on his calculus. "I think we can get a deal tonight, we can get deal tomorrow, but you've got to get something done this week to be able to pass it [in the House] and move it to the Senate" in time to meet the June 1 deadline, he said. The House is currently scheduled to leave for Memorial Day weekend, but McCarthy said he would keep the chamber in session as long as he needed in order to pass a bill. "We're going to stay and do our job," he said. McCarthy spoke after three hours of negotiations between White House and House Republican envoys on Monday. One of the GOP negotiators, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., later said he was "concerned about getting a deal that can pass the House, the Senate, and signed by the president."

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to the media as he leaves a meeting on the debt ceiling with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 22, 2023. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/22/debt-ceiling-joe-biden-kevin-mccarthy-meet.html

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.