WASHINGTON — Debt limit negotiations between the White House and House Republicans hung over the weekend with tough talk but little action, as President Joe Biden and world leaders watched from afar hoping high-stakes discussions would make progress on avoiding a potentially catastrophic federal default.
In a sign of a renewed bargaining session, food was brought to the negotiating room at the Capitol on Saturday morning, only to be carted away hours later. No meeting was expected. It was another start-stop day with no outward signs of progress, though talks could step up again Sunday.
The Biden administration and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are racing for a budget deal that would pave the way to increase the nation’s debt limit. Republicans are demanding steep spending cuts that Democrats oppose as too severe. The two sides are up against a deadline as soon as June 1 to raise its borrowing limit, now at $31 trillion, so the government can keep paying the nation’s bills.
“The Speaker’s team put on the table an offer that was a big step back and contained a set of extreme partisan demands that could never pass both Houses of Congress,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement late Saturday.
“Let’s be clear: The President’s team is ready to meet any time,” said Jean-Pierre, adding that Republican leadership is beholden to its extreme wing in threatening default.
McCarthy tweeted that it was the White House that was “moving backward in negotiations.”
He said “the socialist wing” of the Democratic party appears to be in control, “especially with President Biden out of the country.”
Biden, attending a meeting of global leaders in Japan, tried to reassure them on Saturday that the United States would not default, a scenario that would rattle the world economy. He said he felt there was headway in the talks.
“The first meetings weren’t all that progressive, the second ones were, the third one was,” he said. The president added that he believes “we’ll be able to avoid a default, and we’ll get something decent done.”
For months, Biden had refused to engage in talks over the debt limit, insisting that Congress must not play political games by trying to use the borrowing limit vote as leverage to extract other policy priorities.
But as the deadline approaches as soon as June 1 when Treasury says it could run out of cash, and Republicans put their own legislation on the table, the White House launched on a budget deal that would unlock voting on the debt limit.
The latest proposal from the White House would keep discretionary spending flat from the current 2023 levels into fiscal 2024, according to a person familiar with the talks and granted anonymity to discuss them.
That would essentially cut spending in real terms, when adjusted for inflation, the person said.
The proposal likely falls short of what McCarthy wants for a deal as he faces a restive hard-right flank demanding budget cuts.