The White House is refusing to negotiate on work requirements for welfare services as part of the negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, a key Republican red line in coming to a compromise.
Leaving Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) office this evening, his chief negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), said the White House was unwilling to move on work requirements, causing a major hang-up. The work requirements House Republicans are trying to put in the debt ceiling bill would apply only to able-bodied adults with no dependents and is a non-starter in any compromise with the White House to raise the debt limit, the negotiators have said.
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“The White House continues to prioritize paying people to not work over paying Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits,” Graves told reporters as he left. “Their efforts actually put in jeopardy those very benefits to senior citizens, like Medicare and Social Security, because they’re refusing to negotiate on work requirements.”
Graves also said other items are holding up negotiations but didn’t go into the specifics of what those are. Earlier in the day, the other negotiator, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), said there are a number of terms that have to be met in order for a bill to make it out of the House but that both sides realize there is a deadline and they have serious work to do.
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McCarthy said they had been talking to the White House all day Thursday, and his team plans to be back up in the Capitol on Friday and throughout the weekend to try to come to an agreement.
