White House and Republicans struggling to move forward in debt ceiling talks

Republicans in the White House and Congress struggled to make meaningful progress on Tuesday toward a deal to raise the US borrowing limit, leaving the economy and financial markets in a dangerous limbo with less than a week before a possible debt default. were hanged

Republican House Speakers President Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy met Monday evening at the White House for direct talks that they called “productive,” expressing hope they were moving closer to an agreement.

But the staff-level talks that took place late on Monday and Tuesday showed no signs of success – just a pledge to keep the talks going.

“While areas of disagreement remain, the president, the speaker and their teams will continue to discuss the way forward,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a Tuesday briefing.

Earlier on Tuesday, McCarthy held a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers in the lower chamber of Congress, in which he said he was “nowhere” to an agreement with Biden.

“There are some things that divide us. , , You can’t spend more money next year than you spent this year, clear as day. We have to help people with work needs get to work, McCarthy told reporters afterward.

The lack of any concrete steps towards a deal will be increasingly dangerous, as the US Treasury warns it may run out of cash to pay all its bills by June 1. system, and affected homes and businesses across America.

Any deal would have to be struck several days before that deadline to give both chambers of Congress time to pass the legislation and send it to Biden for his signature.

The division’s biggest problem pertains to how the level of discretionary spending should be determined in the coming years. Although the White House has proposed a freeze in spending levels for the coming fiscal year, Republicans want spending to be aggressively cut before it starts rising again in the long term.

“They just coming up with the idea to freeze?” McCarthy said.

Adding new work requirements to Social Safety Net programs has also been debated on both sides. As talks have dragged on, Democrats have grown increasingly impatient, suggesting that Biden must find a unilateral way to avoid default on constitutional grounds, even if such a solution is legally risky.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, “As I have said from the beginning, McCarthy is a very weak speaker and his MAGA caucus is also controlled by Trump.” The Make America Great Again slogan of former Pres.

But McCarthy insisted a compromise was still possible. “I believe we can still get there, and get there before June 1st.”