US President Joe Biden assured this Saturday that negotiations to raise the debt ceiling are progressing. There is no agreement yet and there may not be an agreement, but the Democratic and Republican negotiating teams are still working.
Members of the Office of Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced Thursday that Biden’s scheduled meeting with McCarthy and other congressional leaders on Friday had been suspended pending the conclusion of negotiations.
Starting points have been very distant, so even progress is no guarantee a deal is close, but Biden expressed more optimism this Saturday when asked if he thought a deal was a possibility.
“We’re making progress, it’s hard to say. We have not yet reached the critical point. There is real discussion about some changes we could all make. “We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he replied, before boarding Air Force One to spend the weekend at his beachfront home in Rehoboth, Delaware. “We’ll know more in the next two days,” he also hinted.
Asked whether he was confident that an agreement could be reached before June 1, he said: “It has to be that way.” June 1 is the first risk date given by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for the federal government to receive the money runs out and she cannot meet her obligations.
The Congressional Budget Office has also indicated that there is a “significant risk” that the government’s resource-running X-day falls within the first two weeks of June. A lot depends on how the payments and, above all, the tax revenues develop overnight.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
subscribe to
Biden is urging Republicans to raise the debt ceiling unconditionally, as they have already done three times during Donald Trump’s tenure as president. Republicans have passed a House bill that would temporarily raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts and Biden giving up some of the gains of the first half of his term. The President has sharply attacked these cuts, while McCarthy has slammed Biden for not negotiating seriously.
The White House has agreed to waive some spending programs, particularly related to the pandemic, and plans to begin negotiations on the next budget and its items, but believes raising the debt ceiling is a constitutional obligation for Congress and that this is the case must comply.
It remains to be seen whether this middle ground is of any use. McCarthy will have a hard time making concessions unless he wants his faction’s most extremist congressmen to rebel against him. The Republican has a slim majority in the House of Representatives. His room for maneuver is limited and strict adherence to the debt ceiling was one of the concessions he made to the radical wing, which was elected after 15 votes.
In an interview last Wednesday, Trump appeared to downplay the importance of the United States’ default, despite economists’ warnings of the disastrous consequences for the economy. He was in favor of defaulting the country if Biden didn’t accept “massive” cuts.
All of this invites us to take Biden’s words with a pinch of salt this Saturday. Although there are negotiations, the attacks are the order of the day on social media, where McCarthy returned to the attack that same Saturday: “For weeks, the Biden White House has been spewing lies about the veterans who are being harmed by those responsible.” Increasing the republican debt limit. That’s because they want to distract you from their own open borders policies, which are currently hurting veterans.” wrote on Twitter while tweeting News of homeless veterans being evicted from their New York hotels to make room for immigrants, the tabloid New York Post reported.
Biden also does not shy away from negotiations: “For all his border talks, the House Republican MAGA wish list would be catastrophic for public safety. His plan calls for 30,000 job cuts in federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA and Border Patrol. It’s not good for law enforcement or our communities.” tweeted in turn.
McCarthy also tweeted news this Saturday about his recent interventions: “When I was vice president, Joe Biden said the national debt was too high and that we needed to find areas to save taxpayers’ money.” At the time, the debt was $14 trillion Dollar. Today it is 31 billion. “If he was right then, making changes in spending is even more important now,” he said in one. “President Biden doesn’t want a deal. He wants a non-payment.” wrote in another
The debt ceiling of $31.38 trillion was reached in January and since then the government has been working with extraordinary measures that provide a temporary respite.
Before leaving for Rehoboth, Biden addressed the graduation ceremony at Howard University, where Kamala Harris studied, this Saturday. At a major event at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, Biden himself received an honorary doctorate from said university.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.