What McCarthy, Biden Said After 'Productive' Debt Ceiling Talks

Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism on striking a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, a positive start to the week after a tumultuous few days of talks.

The White House and Republican-led House of Representatives have been embroiled for weeks in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling as the deadline looms. The U.S. risks defaulting on its debt for the first time in history if Congress fails to raise the $31.4 billion debt limit. The Treasury has warned it could run out of money to pay bills by June 1, something economic analysts say would trigger national and global economic crises.

As a potential default looms, tense negotiations on Capitol Hill have stalled as Biden and Democrats want to increase spending on certain programs while McCarthy and Republicans hold firm on their vow to cut spending except for the defense budget, border security and veterans' care. A deal would need to pass both the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, requiring bipartisan support.

Newsweek has reached out via email to McCarthy's representatives for comment.

Biden and McCarthy pointed fingers at one another following several days of tense talks while the president was in Japan for the G7 summit last week. McCarthy described talks as "frustrating" on Friday, and on Saturday, he said negotiations were "moving backward." However, following a call between the two leaders as Biden flew home on Sunday, tensions seemed to ease. McCarthy said his discussion with the president was "productive," a term he also used to describe Monday's meeting.

Biden echoed the speaker, also calling the meeting "productive." He said on Twitter that talks will continue until they can reach a bipartisan agreement.

"I just concluded a productive meeting with Speaker McCarthy about the need to prevent default and avoid a catastrophe for our economy," Biden said. "We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement. While there are areas of disagreement, the Speaker and I, and his lead negotiators Chairman [Patrick] McHenry and Congressman [Garret] Graves, and our staffs will continue to discuss the path forward."

A spokesperson for the White House "had nothing to share" in response to Newsweek's question of when the president and McCarthy will meet again to continue negotiations.

During a press conference following the meeting, McCarthy told reporters that he is firm in his stance that he will not agree to increasing the limit without cuts. The speaker analogized the idea to giving a child a credit card and raising the limit every time they max it out.

"I don't think it's productive for anybody to keep kicking the can down the road," he said. "And let me just tell you, for every new American ... that was blessed today by having a new child. By kicking the can down the road, that child got a $94,000 bill today, and they've only been alive one day. That is wrong and has got to stop."

Despite the standoff and partisan disagreements, McCarthy said he believes Republicans and Democrats "can come to an agreement."

The California Republican shared a live feed of the press conference on his Twitter account where he again referred to talks as "productive."

"President Biden and I just had a productive meeting in our negotiation to responsibly raise the debt limit," McCarthy said on Twitter. "It should have happened months ago, but there is a path for him to avoid defaulting on the debt."

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent McCarthy and members of Congress another letter on Monday reiterating her warning of the catastrophe a default would cause. She said lawmakers have learned from past debt ceiling impasses that waiting to act on the issue can have dire consequences.

"... Waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States. In fact, we have already seen Treasury's borrowing costs increased substantially for securities maturing in early June. If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests," Yellen wrote.