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February 2, 2023
President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) met yesterday at the White House to discuss a possible path forward to raise the debt ceiling, though expectations remain tempered that a deal can be cut quickly.
The Treasury Department has already initiated a series of technical moves known as “extraordinary measures” to avoid a potentially disastrous default on the nation’s debt. These moves are expected to hold the government over at least early June. McCarthy is on record wanting major spending cuts included as part of any debt ceiling deal and some Republican lawmakers have suggested changes to entitlement programs as well, both suggestions that Biden has rejected.
McCarthy said yesterday that he and the president had “a good first meeting,” but added, “I was very clear. We’re not spending more next year than we spent this year.”
Biden’s position is equally entrenched, according to the White House. The White House maintained after the meeting that the administration and Congress have a “shared duty” to prevent a “catastrophic default.”
The United States has never defaulted on its debt, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly warned that failure by Congress to address the debt limit would wipe out billions of dollars of economic growth, eliminate millions of jobs and trigger a major panic on Wall Street.
