U.S. President Joe Biden, who just announced his reelection campaign for president, delivers remarks at North America’s Constructing Trades Unions Legislative Conference on the Washington Hilton, Washington D.C, April 25, 2023.
Leah Millis | Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden sounds optimistic concerning the odds of reaching a take care of Republicans to lift or suspend the debt limit in time to avoid economic fallout from even a possible U.S. debt default.
“I actually think there is a desire on their part, in addition to ours, to succeed in an agreement, and I feel we’ll give you the chance to do it,” Biden told reporters Sunday in Delaware. As to his way of thinking, he said, “I remain optimistic because I’m a congenital optimist.”
Biden also characterised the talks underway between White House liaisons and congressional aides as “a negotiation,” a notable selection of words after months of insisting he wouldn’t “negotiate” over the debt limit. The president and the highest 4 congressional leaders plan to fulfill again concerning the debt ceiling Tuesday.
“I’ve learned a protracted time ago, and you understand in addition to I do: It never is sweet to characterize a negotiation in the midst of a negotiation,” Biden said in response to an issue concerning the status of the talks.
The president appeared to take his own advice Monday when reporters asked him if he could provide any updates on the budget talks. “No,” said Biden, who was en path to Philadelphia for the day.
Biden’s remarks followed the postponement of a White House meeting, originally set for Friday, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The White House said the three-day delay needs to be viewed as an indication of progress within the talks. “The meetings have been productive over the past few days and leaders desired to proceed before they regrouped,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
Democrats have spent months blasting House Republicans’ proposal, which demands sweeping cuts to federal spending in exchange for agreeing to pass a debt limit hike. Just last Thursday, Biden accused the House GOP of “holding our economy hostage.”
Against this backdrop of months of bitter partisan attacks, Biden’s sudden shift in tone Sunday was striking.
But not everyone involved within the talks has such a sunny outlook.
“I still think we’re far apart,” McCarthy told NBC News on Monday outside the Capitol, adding, “It doesn’t appear to me yet that they need a deal.”
“It looks as if they wish to appear to be they’re in a gathering,” said McCarthy. “They are not talking anything serious.”
While Democrats are reluctant to debate the GOP’s sweeping plan to slash federal spending, Biden did seem willing on Sunday to entertain specific Republican proposals.
Asked whether he would consider a House GOP plan to stiffen work requirements for social safety net programs, Biden didn’t dismiss the concept out of hand, as several high-profile Democrats have done.
As an alternative, he pointed to his own Senate record of voting for welfare work requirements within the Nineties.
“I voted for tougher aid programs, that is within the law now, but for Medicaid it’s a unique story,” he said. “And so I’m waiting to listen to what their exact proposal is.”
A Republican bill passed last month included stricter work requirements not just for Medicaid, but for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, funds, in addition to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food stamps. The undeniable fact that Biden roped off Medicaid, but not TANF and SNAP, offered a window into where Democrats could be willing to provide a little bit.
Biden also said he planned to travel to Japan later this week to attend the G-7 summit, a visit he had previously said he could attend virtually if debt limit talks required him to stay in Washington.
While McCarthy stopped wanting criticizing the president for traveling abroad during negotiations, he suggested that each leaders and staff would want to succeed in at the least a short-term debt limit deal by this weekend with a view to move a bill through Congress before a possible default date that would come as early as June 1.
“I feel we have to have a deal done by this weekend,” McCarthy said, lamenting that the president “hasn’t taken it serious.”
Investors are watching how the negotiations unfold. Stocks declined Monday morning because the market chewed over the comments from Biden and McCarthy.