Biden and McCarthy to satisfy Wednesday amid debt ceiling showdown

President Joe Biden and Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet Wednesday, a White Home official confirmed, the primary such gathering because the California Republican captured the speakership earlier this month.

The assembly comes because the Treasury Division continues to take extraordinary measures to maintain the federal government paying its payments after the US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress.

“I need to discover a affordable and a accountable method that we will raise the debt ceiling however take management of this runaway spending,” McCarthy mentioned Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS.

“So I need to sit down collectively, work out an settlement that we will transfer ahead to place us on a path to steadiness on the similar time, not put any of our debt in jeopardy on the similar time,” he mentioned.

Arduous-line Republicans, who maintain vital sway within the Home due to their celebration’s slim majority, have demanded that lifting the borrowing cap be tied to spending reductions.

The White Home, nonetheless, has countered that it’s going to not supply any concessions or negotiate on elevating the debt ceiling. And with the answer to the debt ceiling drama squarely in lawmakers’ fingers, fears are rising that the partisan brinksmanship may end result within the nation defaulting on its debt for the primary time ever – or come dangerously near doing so.

McCarthy on Sunday instructed that protection spending may probably be on the desk, however he made clear that cuts to Social Safety and Medicare weren’t an choice.

“I first assume, our very first accountability, we each ought to should go a price range. We each ought to should go the appropriation payments so the nation can see the path we’re going. However you can’t proceed the spending that has introduced this inflation, that has introduced our financial issues. We’ve bought to get our spending beneath management,” he mentioned.

Earlier this month, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned the 2 males would meet on a spread of matters, however insisted that elevating the debt restrict was “not negotiable.”

“President Biden appears ahead to assembly with Speaker McCarthy to debate a spread of points, as a part of a collection of conferences with all new Congressional leaders to start out the yr,” Jean-Pierre mentioned. “Just like the President has mentioned many instances, elevating the debt ceiling is just not a negotiation; it’s an obligation of this nation and its leaders to keep away from financial chaos.”