White House Negotiations to Republic Stagnant, US Debt Crisis Still Uncertain

Armfalcon.com, WASHINGTON — A meeting between the White House and Republican congressional negotiators to raise the US Government’s debt ceiling by US$31.4 trillion ended without any progress. This was disclosed by both parties and no plans for additional meetings have yet been set.

Quoted from Reuters, intense talks which also stalled for several hours creating uncertainty given that it is less than two weeks before June 1. This, as the US Treasury has warned, is a deadline that the US federal government cannot pay all of its debts. That would trigger a catastrophic default or default.

Meanwhile, the White House acknowledged that serious differences remained with the Republican Party, which controls the House of Representatives. US President Joe Biden said, still confident default can be avoided.

“I’m still confident we’ll be able to avoid that default and we will accomplish something it deserves,” Biden told reporters in Hiroshima, Japan, Saturday (20/5/2023).

Republicans have said they will not agree to increasing the federal government’s borrowing limit without an agreement on sharp spending cuts.

“There continue to be marked differences between the parties on this matter,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

The Republican leader in the talks said no progress had been made. “We’re having very, very open discussions about where we are and talking about where things should be,” Republican Representative Garrett Graves told reporters at the Capitol.

He also echoed US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s statement that progress needed to be made to change the course of the US government’s rapidly increasing deficit and debt.

“We had to do less spending than the previous year,” said McCarthy.

Talks between the two sides are also still hanging because Biden is still in Japan to attend the G7 meeting. Republicans are pushing for sharp spending cuts in exchange for increasing the government’s self-imposed borrowing limit. This step is deemed necessary to be carried out regularly to cover expenses and tax cuts previously approved by members of parliament.

Republicans control the House of Representatives by a margin of 222-213. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has a 51-49 majority in the Senate level. This makes it difficult to realize an agreement in the two chambers of the US parliament.

source : Reuters