Questions abound about President Joe Biden‘s ability to coax congressional Republicans into a debt limit agreement despite “good faith” efforts put forth by White House negotiators and the president’s own stated desire for a bipartisan solution.
Biden, whom allies frequently prop up as a unifying political leader, is currently in Hiroshima, Japan, for the G-7 leaders summit, but his hand-selected team had plans to continue negotiations with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) own negotiators through the weekend.
SCHUMER PROJECTS DEBT CEILING OPTIMISM AS PROGRESSIVES FRET ABOUT DEAL
Those discussions ground to a halt when Republican lawmakers abruptly left a meeting with White House officials Friday morning that GOP lawmakers framed as “not productive.” They resumed Friday night.
“There are real differences between the parties on budget issues, and talks will be difficult,” a White House official said in a statement confirming the current pause in talks. “The president’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate.”
Republicans, however, have asserted that the White House and Democrats are playing hardball and not seriously considering cuts proposed by the GOP, specifically the two-year caps that would limit federal spending to 2022 levels.
“We’ve got to get movement by the White House. And we don’t have any movement yet,” McCarthy told reporters following Friday’s negotiations breakdown. “We can’t be spending more money next year. We have to spend less than we spent the year before”
Biden is currently slated to travel from Japan back to Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Both he and McCarthy appointed their negotiating teams to continue debt talks until his return following their meeting at the White House this past Tuesday.
A White House source told the Washington Examiner that the president’s team believes it is being reasonable in pursuing both Biden’s priorities and a bipartisan solution. That person stated that the administration negotiators are closely aligned with Democrats on the issue.
There currently aren’t any staff or principal level calls or meetings following Republicans’ hasty exit on Friday, the source said, though has already received multiple briefings on the topic from his staff while traveling. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed early Friday morning that Biden is slated to receive another update Saturday morning in Japan.
Senior Democrat officials similarly warned the Washington Examiner not to “underestimate” Biden’s ability to close the deal despite the apparent gap between the two sides.
“President Biden has more than 40 years of Congressional experience to draw on here. You’ve seen it on display throughout several bipartisan legislative victories during his time in office, including the CHIPS and Science and the Safer Communities Act,” one official said. “Republicans are playing a game of chicken with the economic future of the nation, but we have full confidence in the president and his team can safely avoid a default.”
Biden’s hopes for a bipartisan solution have been further undermined by members of his own party. A group of 11 Senate Democrats sent a letter to the White House on Thursday urging the president to invoke the 14th Amendment to avoid a default without help from Republicans, echoing calls from some in the progressive base. The Congressional Progressive Caucus similarly called on Biden to handle the debt ceiling via the 14th Amendment.
Biden had previously expressed openness to the idea following his first, May sit down with McCarthy on the topic, yet Politico reported that White House aides have privately told activists and Democratic lawmakers that invoking the 14th Amendment is not a legally sound solution.
The White House has extensively studied the issue and deemed that declaring the debt limit unconstitutional could spark a legal battle that aides fear could be overturned in the courts, leaving the country in an even more precarious financial position later in the year.
“They have not ruled it out,” one White House told Politico. “But it is not currently part of the plan.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also publicly cautioned Biden against invoking the 14th Amendment on Friday afternoon.
“It is the Chamber’s view that attempting to invoke so-called ‘powers’ under the 14th Amendment would be as economically calamitous as a default triggered by a failure to lift the debt limit in a timely manner,” the Chamber wrote to the White House in a letter. “Simply put, there is no alternative to reaching a bipartisan agreement to raise the statutory debt limit.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Still, no matter which route Biden ultimately chooses, the White House is rapidly running out of time to avoid a default.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly stated this week that the “X-date,” the point at which the nation fully exhausts measures to meet its debts, will occur in early June, not July as previously believed.
