McCarthy expects another meeting between Biden and congressional leaders next week
Reese Gorman
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he expects there will be another meeting at the White House between the four congressional leaders and President Joe Biden after the one scheduled for Friday was postponed.
The speaker said the meeting scheduled for Friday was postponed because all parties involved believed it to be in “the best of our interest” to allow staff to continue to meet and negotiate. In addition, one of the members of the “Big Four” has a funeral to attend and wouldn’t be able to make it to the meeting, McCarthy said.
SENATE LEADERS PLAY DEBT CEILING BLAME GAME WHILE AIDES NEGOTIATE BEHIND THE SCENES
The speaker said the negotiations between the staff “have not made progress,” and he does not believe Biden is taking the threat of default seriously.
“Looking at the actions of this president, he doesn’t want to deal. He wants to default,” McCarthy said. “And the American people do not deserve that.”
Late last month, House Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would raise the debt ceiling while making substantial cuts to government spending and some of Biden’s top agenda items. The bill has since stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Biden has already come out against the bill.
“If you pass a bill that limits savings and grows, once it passes, our economy is going to grow,” McCarthy said, referring to the House GOP’s debt ceiling bill. “We’re going to be less dependent. Individuals will have more money than they can keep, the energy prices are going to come down, and we’re going to cut the red tape so we can build things in America again.”
The Big Four and the president met Tuesday to negotiate the debt ceiling. McCarthy expressed the meeting was unproductive, and rather than negotiating, both sides expressed where they were at and what they wanted when it came to raising the debt ceiling. For Biden, that is a clean debt ceiling increase that would be nearly impossible to get out of the Republican-controlled House. For McCarthy and House Republicans, they need to see some cuts to government spending in order to vote to raise the debt ceiling but say they need Biden and Senate Democrats to come to the table and negotiate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has expressed he is letting McCarthy take the lead and will support whatever debt ceiling bill House Republicans send to them.
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Before the meeting on Tuesday, Biden and McCarthy had not met since Feb. 1.
According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the country is set to default on its debt on June 1, giving Congress just over two weeks to come to a deal and raise the debt ceiling.