Dancing On The Debt Ceiling: Washington's Waltz Of Risk, Rhetoric, And Potential Ruin
EDITOR'S NOTE: The bigwigs in Washington are playing a high-stakes game of chicken, with nothing less than the U.S. economy on the line. The brass ring? The debt ceiling. President Joe Biden, with a gleam in his eye and a hope in his heart, thinks he can wrangle the cutthroat conservatives in Congress into raising the limit before Uncle Sam's credit runs dry. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a man of fewer illusions, reckons they're still light years apart. He's accusing the White House of not playing it straight, just going through the motions without talking turkey. As the debt clock ticks on, this dance of political posturing gets more dangerous. And the everyday Joe on Main Street? He's the one who'll pay the piper if they don't get their act together. And the worst part? Things appear to be heading from really bad to worse.
The president called himself a 'congenital optimist' regarding the talks
President Biden said he is expected to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders on Tuesday for a follow-up to their gathering last week on the debt limit, and said he believes a deal can be reached.
"I think so," Biden told reporters on Sunday when asked if Tuesday will be their next sit-down.
Washington has been under growing pressure to find an agreement on lifting the debt ceiling before June 1, the rough date when the federal government is expected to run out of cash to pay its obligations.
A planned meeting on Friday was called off the day before, after staff discussions failed to make significant headway. But that appears to have changed over the weekend.
Staffs for the top four congressional leaders and the White House reportedly met on Saturday for further discussions.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she was "hopeful" about the direction of talks at the G-7 finance ministers meeting in Japan.
"I think the negotiations are very active. I’m told they have found some areas of agreement," Yellen told the Wall Street Journal.
For months, Biden and Senate Democrats insisted that they could only support a "clean" debt limit increase without any preconditions on federal spending levels. But House and Senate Republicans have coalesced around a bill led by McCarthy, R-Calif., that would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for cutting back discretionary spending to fiscal 2022 levels, limiting growth for 10 years and repealing some of Biden’s key progressive agenda items.
While Democrats have made clear that they oppose the GOP bill, Biden appeared to concede that he could potentially be moved to support some form of tougher work requirements for federal benefits – though he ruled out tightening access to Medicaid.
"I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now, but for Medicaid it's a different story. And so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is," Biden said.
The president did not go into detail on how staff talks were progressing in the interim but called himself an "optimist."
"It never is good to characterize a negotiation in the middle of a negotiation," Biden said on Sunday. "I remain optimistic because I'm a congenital optimist. But I really think there’s a desire on their part, as well as ours, to reach an agreement, and I think we'll be able to do it."
He also said he anticipated still leaving for his planned trip to Japan for the G-7 summit later this week.
Originally published by: Elizabeth Elkind on FOX Business
