Time defaults to 17 DAYS: Biden hints he IS open to tougher job requirements on benefits as Kevin McCarthy says president doesn’t want to make debt limit deal ahead of tense talks at the White House
“I really think there’s a desire on their part, as well as ours, to come to an agreement, and I think we can do that,” Biden said optimistically on Sunday.
McCarthy had a different opinion: ‘It doesn’t look to me like they want a deal yet’
“It just looks like they want to look like they’re in a meeting but they’re not talking about anything serious”
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Just 17 days until June 1, President Biden and Chairman Kevin McCarthy are even at odds over how they think the debt ceiling negotiations are progressing.
“I really think there’s a desire on their part, as well as ours, to come to an agreement, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” an upbeat Biden told reporters in Delaware on Sunday. .
“I stay optimistic because I’m a congenital optimist.”
Biden declined to detail the status of the talks. “I learned a long time ago, and you know it as well as I do: it’s never good to characterize a negotiation in the middle of a negotiation,” he said.
McCarthy called the talks “still a long way off.”
“It doesn’t look to me like they want a deal yet, it just looks like they want to look like they’re in a meeting but they’re not talking about anything serious,” he told reporters on Monday morning. .
“I really think there’s a desire on their part, as well as ours, to come to an agreement, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” an upbeat Biden told reporters in Delaware on Sunday. .
“It doesn’t look to me like they want a deal yet, it just looks like they want to look like they’re in a meeting, but they’re not talking about anything serious,” McCarthy told reporters Monday morning.
“It looks like they want a default more than a deal,” the speaker said, adding that they needed a deal by “this weekend” in order “to have a timeline to be able to pass it through both chambers”.
Biden and congressional leaders are expected to sit down on Tuesday after their staff conducted negotiations throughout the past week. They were originally scheduled to meet on Friday, but those talks were called off as staff-level negotiations had not progressed far enough.
In a surprise development, Biden expressed openness to tougher work requirements for social welfare programs, a top priority in the House GOP’s debt limit bill.
Biden said he’s voted for “stricter work requirements” as a senator in the past, but “for Medicaid that’s a different story, so I’m waiting to hear exactly what their proposal is.”
House Republicans’ debt limit bill, the Limit, Save Grow Act, included tougher work requirements for Medicaid, SNAP and TANF.
Biden also said he plans to attend the G-7 in Japan later this week — a trip he previously said he could attend virtually if debt limit talks force him to stay away. Washington.
McCarthy said the president “didn’t take it seriously,” but refrained from criticizing him for leaving the country in the middle of negotiations.
The federal government hit its borrowing limit of $31.4 trillion in January, prompting the Treasury to take “extraordinary measures” to move the money around and give Congress more time to strike a deal.
The Treasury now says the nation could run out of funds to pay its bills by June 1, although the exact date is unknown.
Biden has long insisted that Congress must present him with a “clean” debt ceiling bill and can talk about spending cuts after the limit is raised. McCarthy has long insisted he won’t – using the debt ceiling as leverage to demand cuts to the federal budget.
Talks between staff continued throughout the weekend and the Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said she thinks the two sides could work out a deal.
The president, meanwhile, spent the weekend at his Rehoboth home and is spending Monday attending his granddaughter Maisy’s graduation from the University of Pennsylvania.