Top House Republicans say they want to negotiate spending cuts in exchange for lifting the statutory debt limit, but President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats say they’re not willing to entertain a negotiation.
The dynamics provide for initial stalemate as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen told lawmakers Friday that the department will be forced to deploy “extraordinary measures” this week to remain under the $31.4 trillion statutory borrowing cap. Those accounting tools may not last beyond early June, Yellen said, suggesting Congress will need to act by then.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said several times in recent days that he told President Joe Biden he’d like to sit down early and begin discussing the debt ceiling and spending cuts. But the White House’s official position is it will not negotiate, saying Congress is obliged to lift the debt ceiling to ensure the government can keep paying its bills without the threat of other policy demands.
