U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters with U.S. Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at his side following the talks on the debt limit at the White House in Washington, United States, on May 9, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The recurring Capitol Hill deliberations surrounding the debt ceiling are back, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Saturday that Republicans would not continue negotiations until President Joe Biden returns from the Group of Nations summit. Seven in Japan.
“Unfortunately, the White House backed down,” McCarthy said of the ongoing debt ceiling deliberations. “I don’t think we can move forward until the president can return to the country,” he added.
Biden should feedback in Washington, DC, from the G-7 summit on Sunday. President said at a press conference from the summit that he is “not at all” concerned about the negotiations and that he thinks “we can avoid a default and we will do something decent”.
McCarthy’s revelation that the talks are on hold again, at least for now, is the latest hurdle facing the debate in Congress over what to do with the pending debt limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has set June 1 as the earliest date the United States could run out of money to pay debts the government has already incurred.
Any deal to raise or suspend the debt ceiling will need to pass both the GOP-led House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, and key lawmakers from both parties have acknowledged that the potential bill compromise law could be unacceptable to extremists.
High-stakes talks on raising the debt ceiling resumed on Capitol Hill Friday night, hours after they were halted at noon when Republican negotiators walked out of the room, accusing the White House of delaying talks.
[colabot2]
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