McCarthy calls Biden meeting ‘productive’ and ‘professional,’ but no debt ceiling deal yet

WASHINGTON
—
House
Speaker
Kevin
McCarthy
said
he
had
a
“productive”
and
“professional”
meeting
with
President
Joe
Biden
on
how
to
raise
the
debt
ceiling,
but
that
the
two
did
not
reach
a
deal
Monday.

“I
think
the
tone
tonight
was
better
than
any
other
night
we’ve
had
discussions,”
McCarthy
said
outside
the
West
Wing
following
the
hourlong
meeting.

The
meeting
was
also
helpful
to
the
negotiating
teams
who
are
hammering
out
the
complex
deal.
“It
told
us
in
the
negotiating
team
a
little
more
of
the
details
we
need
to
get
to
a
package
that
can
pass
Congress,”
said
GOP
Rep.
Patrick
McHenry,
N.C.,
who
is
negotiating
on
McCarthy’s
behalf.

“To
hear
the
speaker
and
the
president
air
their
views
directly
with
one
another,
no
acrimony,
it
was
productive
and
it
was
a
meaningful
discussion
and
helpful
to
us
getting
a
construct
that
can
protect
everyone’s
equities,”
McHenry
said.

McCarthy
said
that
both
teams
were
going
to
“come
back
together
and
work
through
the
night”
on
a
compromise
deal.
“The
president
and
I
know
the
deadline,
so
I
think
we’re
going
to
talk
every
day
…
until
we
get
this
done.”

Ahead
of
the
meeting,
Biden
emphasized
that
both
men
needed
a
deal
that
“we
can
sell
to
both
sides”
of
a
closely
divided,
hyper
partisan
Congress.
“We
still
have
some
disagreements,
but
I
think
we
may
be
able
to
get
where
we
have
to
go,”
Biden
said
at
the
start
of
a
highly
anticipated
sit
down.

McCarthy
shared
Biden’s
cautious
optimism.
“I
think
at
the
end
of
the
day,
we
can
find
common
ground,
make
our
economy
stronger,
take
care
of
this
debt,
but
more
importantly,
get
this
government
moving
again
to
curb
inflation,
make
us
less
dependent
upon
China
and
make
our
appropriations
system
work.”

Shortly
before
the
meeting,
Treasury
Secretary
Janet
Yellen

reaffirmed
June
1
as
the
earliest
date
the
U.S.
could
be
at
serious
risk
of
debt
default.
Yellen’s
latest
letter
to
congressional
leaders
was
similar
to
the
letters
she
has
sent
throughout
the
spring.
But
on
Monday,
there
were
two
subtle
differences.

The
first
was
that
Yellen
characterized
a
potential
debt
default
in
early
June
as
“highly
likely,”
whereas
last
week
it
was
merely
“likely.”
In
Monday’s
letter,
she
also
notably
excluded
a
line
from
last
week,
which
predicted
that
the
emergency
actions
Treasury
is
taking
to
cover
government
debts
could
extend
the
default
deadline
into
June.

“The
actual
date
Treasury
exhausts
extraordinary
measures
could
be
a
number
of
days
or
weeks
later
than
these
estimates,”
Yellen
wrote
in
her
letter
to
congressional
leaders
a
week
ago.
But
by
Monday,
her
apparent
optimism
had
vanished.

McCarthy
said
Monday
that
he
believed
June
1
to
be
a
stone
cold
deadline.
He
also
acknowledged
that
the
reality
of
the
legislative
process
has
started
to
weigh
on
his
calculus.

“I
think
we
can
get
a
deal
tonight,
we
can
get
deal
tomorrow,
but
you’ve
got
to
get
something
done
this
week
to
be
able
to
pass
it
[in
the
House]
and
move
it
to
the Senate”
in
time
to
meet
the
June
1
deadline,
he
said.

The
House
is
currently
scheduled
to
leave
for
Memorial
Day
weekend,
but
McCarthy
said
he
would
keep
the
chamber
in
session
as
long
as
he
needed
in
order
to
pass
a
bill.
“We’re
going
to
stay
and
do
our
job,”
he
said.

McCarthy
spoke
after
three
hours
of
negotiations
between
White
House
and
House
Republican
envoys
on
Monday.
One
of
the
GOP
negotiators,
Rep.
Patrick
McHenry,
R-N.C.,
later
said
he
was
“concerned
about
getting
a
deal
that
can
pass
the
House,
the
Senate,
and
signed
by
the
president.”

“It’s
a
complicated
piece
of
math,
it
is,”
McHenry
told
CNN.
“We’re
at
a
very
sensitive
point
here, and
the
goal
is
to
get
something
that
can
be
legislated
into
law,”
he
added.

McHenry
was
joined
in
the
talks
by
Rep.
Garret
Graves,
R-La.
The
White
House
team
is
comprised
of
presidential
counselor
Steve
Ricchetti,
Office
of
Management
and
Budget
Director
Shalanda
Young
and
legislative
affairs
director
Louisa
Terrell.

Yellen
has
repeatedly
warned
Congress
and
the
public
that
the
United
States
faces
a
hard
deadline
to
raise
the
debt
ceiling
before
the
beginning
of
June.

“We
expect
to
be
unable
to
pay

all
of
our
bills
in
early
June,
and
possibly
as
soon
as
June
1,”
Yellen
had
said
Sunday
on
NBC’s
“Meet
the
Press.”

“My
assessment
is
that
the
odds
of
reaching
June
15
while
being
able
to
pay
all
of
our
bills
is
quite
low,”
she
said,
with
the
caveat
that
there
would
always
be
uncertainty
about
exact
revenue
and
payments.

Both
Biden
and
McCarthy
have
acknowledged
that
one
of
the
main
sticking
points
in
the
talks
remains
the
question
of
spending
caps,
a
key
GOP
demand
but
a
red
line
so
far
for
the
White
House.
Raising
the
debt
limit
would
not
authorize
new
spending,
but
Republicans
have
insisted
on
sweeping
cuts
to
government
outlays
as
part
of
a
deal
to
hike
the
borrowing
limit.

“The
underlying
issue
here
is
that
Democrats,
since
they
took
the
majority,
have
been
addicted
to
spending.
And
that’s
going
to
stop.
We’re
going
to
spend
less
than
we
spent
last
year,”
McCarthy
said
to
reporters
Monday
morning
in
the
Capitol.

Biden
is
hoping
to
reach
a
debt
limit
deal
that
would
push
the
next
deadline
out
past
the
2024
presidential
election.
But
House
Republicans,
who
so
far
have
endorsed
only
a
one-year
hike,
say
that
if
Biden
wants
more
time,
then
he
will
need
to
agree
to
even
more
cuts.

Biden
and
McCarthy’s
meeting
follows
a
dramatic
weekend
during
which
talks
broke
down
Friday
over
an
impasse
on
government
spending
levels,
but
resumed
several
hours
later.

The
two
leaders
then
spoke
by
phone
Sunday
evening,
a
conversation
they
described
as
“productive.”

Over
the
weekend,
the
president
faulted
Republicans
for
demanding
that
huge
chunks
of
federal
discretionary
spending
be
exempted
from
their
proposed
topline
budget
cuts,
including
defense
and
potentially
veterans
health
benefits.

If
these
categories
were
actually
to
be
exempted,
Biden
explained,
then
cuts
to
all
the
other
discretionary
spending
would
need
to
be
much
deeper
in
order
to
make
up
the
difference.

Across-the-board
cuts
like
these
“make
absolutely
no
sense
at
all,”
Biden
said
Sunday
in
Japan,
where
he
was
attending
the
Group
of
Seven
Summit.
“It’s
time
for
Republicans
to
accept
that
there
is
no
bipartisan
deal
to
be
made
solely,
solely,
on
their
partisan
terms.”