US President Joe Biden and congressional leaders have expressed optimism that a bipartisan agreement can be reached to raise the debt ceiling within days, despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s warning that the two parties are still far apart after the meeting. Tuesday at the White House.
As a result of the meeting, an agreement was reached on a new system of personnel negotiations, and lawmakers from both sides said they hope to avoid an unprecedented US stumbling during the hour-long meeting in the Oval Office.
“I think there is an overwhelming feeling among congressional leaders that defaulting on debt is simply not an option,” Biden said in a speech after the meeting. But the president warned that “there is still work to be done.”
Biden also announced that he had canceled plans to visit Australia and Papua New Guinea after Wednesday’s trip to Japan so the president could return to Washington in hopes of making a deal. Biden said he plans to “continue to communicate regularly” with Congressional leaders while he is in Hiroshima for the G7 leaders’ summit, and meet with the group again upon his return, according to Bloomberg, who saw Al Arabiya. net.
McCarthy told reporters, “We have a lot of work ahead of us.” “By the end of the week, a deal can be made. Making a deal is easy.”
For his part, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was more optimistic than after meeting with the President and Congressional leaders last week, while House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffreys welcomed the “open, honest and friendly discussion” .
“The bottom line is that we all agreed to continue negotiations,” Schumer said.
The White House rally came amid signs that negotiators are struggling to find common ground, with deep-seated disagreements over the size and extent of concessions to raise the federal spending cap.
Failure to reach an agreement will likely push the United States over the debt ceiling as early as next month, sparking a tailspin that could rock global financial markets, raise borrowing costs for government, businesses and consumers, and jeopardize an economic growth that has already begun. show signs of collapse.
On Tuesday, Wall Street again expressed concern about Washington’s ability to raise the debt ceiling and avert historic deficits as stocks and bonds tumbled. Yields rose across the US curve, with the 30-year bond rate rising to around 3.9%, the highest level since regional bank turmoil erupted in early March.
The meeting became a litmus test for negotiations amid dire warnings from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said the US could default as early as June 1, that “time is running out” for a negotiated solution.
Earlier Tuesday, McCarthy held a closed-door meeting with his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives, urging them to comply with their demands, according to a source familiar with the discussions viewed by Al Arabiya, Bloomberg quoted.net. He said he hoped to reach an agreement by the end of the week, given the difficult legislative path any deal could face given the Republican Party’s majority in the House of Representatives.
