President Joe Biden called Republican demands for sharp spending cuts unacceptable and said he’ll talk with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about debt-ceiling and budget negotiations on his flight back from Japan.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden called Republican demands for sharp spending cuts unacceptable and said he’ll talk with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about debt-ceiling and budget negotiations on his flight back from Japan.
The call, which will take place Sunday morning New York time, comes as negotiations reached an impasse with time running out to avoid default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the US could run out of cash to meet its obligations as soon as June 1.
“I’m hoping that Speaker McCarthy is just waiting to negotiate with me,” Biden said at a press conference Sunday following the end of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima. “I don’t know if that’s true or not.”
Read More: Biden Seeks to Call McCarthy After Debt-Limit Talks Hit Impasse
McCarthy on Saturday accused White House officials of backtracking in talks on raising the debt-limit and setting federal spending levels. He said it’s unlikely negotiations would become unstuck until Biden’s return to Washington from the summit via Air Force One, expected about midnight on Sunday.
In his opening remarks to reporters, Biden said that he put forward a proposal to cut spending and that the onus is now on Republicans to shift their demands.
“Now it’s time for the other side to move from their extreme positions because much of what they’ve already proposed is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable,” Biden said.
The president insisted he wouldn’t agree to a deal that protects tax breaks for the wealthy, fossil-fuel and pharmaceutical industries while cutting health care and education funding.
Still, he conveyed optimism that a deal could still be reached. He also said that the spending cuts he’s willing to concede to McCarthy won’t trigger a recession, holding it up as an example of the White House’s willingness to negotiate.
“So my point is that there’s a lot of things that they refuse to entertain, and they just said revenue is off the table. Revenue is not off the table. And so that’s what I continue — we continue to have a significant disagreement on the revenue side,” Biden said.
Asked whether he was considering invoking the 14th amendment of the US Constitution to raise the debt limit, Biden said he believed he had the legal authority to do so but said that he’s not certain that there’s enough time for him to invoke that power and fend off likely legal challenges in time to avert a default.
“That’s a question that I think is unresolved,” he said.
The president said that revenue raising measures should remain on the table in the budget discussions with Republicans, something that GOP lawmakers have rejected. He also acknowledged the political peril of the debt-limit standoff as the re-election bid he announced last month gains steam.
Former president Donald Trump, currently the front-runner in most polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has called on his party to not make a deal unless it gets everything it wants from Biden.
“There are some MAGA Republicans in the House who know the damage that it would do to the economy,” he said. “Because I am president and presidents are responsible for everything, Biden would take the blame and that’s the one way to make sure Biden is not reelected.”
(Updates with Biden comments from press conference in Hiroshima)
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