President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are set to meet on Wednesday – the first such gathering since the California Republican won the speakership after Republicans took over the House majority.
The highly anticipated meeting is expected to influence how the fight to raise the national debt limit unfolds as the White House and the new House GOP majority are at odds over how to resolve the critical issue.
House Republicans say that lifting the borrowing cap must be tied to spending reductions. The White House, however, has countered that it will not offer concessions or negotiate on raising the debt ceiling.
The US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress in January, forcing the Treasury Department to start taking extraordinary measures to keep the government paying its bills and escalating pressure on Capitol Hill to avoid a catastrophic default.
The debt limit fight will be an early test of McCarthy’s leadership as House speaker, where he has to balance competing demands from different factions of his conference amid a razor-thin majority. It will also shed light on how, and to what extent, McCarthy and Biden are able to work with one another.
Senate Republicans have indicated they will sit back and see how the House GOP maneuvers a way to raise the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit – before deciding if they need to insert themselves into the process.
McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday the nation has reached “a critical point” with respect to the debt limit. Discussing his upcoming meeting with Biden, McCarthy said, “I want to sit down, I want to talk to him. I think we could find common ground. We could find a lot of savings in the spending of government that saves the hardworking taxpayers their money.”
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