US President Joe Biden shortened his journey abroad due to the looming debt ceiling crisis, adding urgency to talks that resumed Tuesday at the White House with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders.
Biden canceled his journey to Papua New Guinea and Australia, according to three officials familiar with the decision. He will still attend the G-7 summit to be held in Hiroshima, Japan.
McCarthy said the parties were still far apart, but a deal before the end of the week was “possible.”
“We’ve only just begun”stated Biden in brief statements to the press prior to the meeting, which takes place in the Oval Office, while the other attendees — McCarthy; Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; House Minority Leader Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican, and Vice President Kamala Harris — sat in silence.
Biden has remained optimistic about the talks, while McCarthy has said publicly that negotiators have made little progress before the June 1 deadline.when according to the Treasury Department the United States could begin to default on its debts.
Although Biden has been optimistic and has stated that “we will be able to do it”, McCarthy has urged the president to act more quickly and has been much more pessimistic about the state of the negotiations. he and others republicans they are demanding budget cuts in exchange for their support of raising the debt ceiling. Biden insists that the two issues should not be linked.
“How much is too much?” McCarthy said Tuesday of the nation’s $31 trillion in debt, while pushing for tougher work requirements for government aid recipients as a way to cut spending.
#Biden #shortens #foreign #trip #due #debt #limit
Source Link
