Kevin McCarthy addresses Wall Street in debt ceiling push

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will make his case that failing to strike a deal and lift the debt ceiling could upend global markets from essentially the most high-profile market of all: The Latest York Stock Exchange.

It’s an unusual setting for a political speech, but McCarthy’s visit Monday will echo former President Ronald Reagan’s visit to the ground in 1985, his first of two as president.

As Congress returns to from a two-week recess to a summery capital where the Treasury Department’s mid-summer debt ceiling deadline feels tangibly closer, McCarthy finds himself in an increasingly difficult position.

President Joe Biden has not budged in three months on his refusal to barter over the debt limit, and has thus far dismissed Republican efforts to tie a debt ceiling vote to a simultaneous deal on budget negotiations.

On Monday, McCarthy is predicted to color a bleak picture of what a debt default would appear to be for global markets, and use that as a pivot to call on Biden to return to the table.

In a press release Monday morning prematurely of McCarthy’s speech, White House spokesman Andrew Bates accused the California Republican of “holding the complete faith and credit of america hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans’ retirement.”

McCarthy responded to the White House in a tweet, saying: “Make no mistake: the longer President Biden waits to be sensible, to search out agreement, the more likely it becomes that his administration will bumble into the primary default in our nation’s history.”

Meanwhile, McCarthy’s own caucus of House Republicans is not making his job any easier, for the reason that GOP only has a slim majority. The one thing your complete caucus agrees upon is that spending cuts are needed. But what gets cut, and by how much, is a source of increasingly bitter disagreement.

This can be a developing story. Check back for updates.