third time's a charm?
Biden and McCarthy to meet Monday for debt ceiling negotiations
President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will meet on Monday afternoon to resume negotiations on the debt ceiling, McCarthy announced Sunday.
It will be their third meeting this month on the matter. McCarthy told reporters that during a phone call with Biden, who is headed back to Washington, D.C., from Japan, where he attended the G7 summit, the president "walked through some of the things that he's still looking at, he's hearing from his members; I walked through things I'm looking at. I felt that part was productive. But look — there's no agreement. We're still apart."
The debt ceiling is the amount of money the government is authorized to borrow to pay its obligations, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that if the limit isn't raised, the country could run out of cash and default on its debt as soon as June 1. This would "generate an economic and financial catastrophe," she said. "There will be hard choices to make if the debt ceiling isn't raised."
Republicans want to cut spending, reduce funding for the IRS and add work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance of Needy Families program in exchange for raising the debt limit. Biden has said he's open to making some spending cuts as long as Republicans consider raising tax revenues.