U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters with U.S. Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at his side following debt limit talks on the White House in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2023.Â
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The on-again, off-again deliberations on Capitol Hill surrounding the debt ceiling are back off-again, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Saturday Republicans will only proceed negotiations when President Joe Biden returns from the Group of Seven Summit in Japan.
“Unfortunately, the White House moved backwards,” McCarthy said concerning the current deliberations surrounding the debt ceiling. “I do not think we will have the opportunity to maneuver forward until the president can get back within the country,” he added.
Biden is scheduled to return to Washington, D.C., from the G-7 summit on Sunday. The president said at a press conference from the summit that he’s “in no way” concerned concerning the negotiations and believes “we’ll have the opportunity to avoid a default and we’ll get something decent done.”
McCarthy’s revelation that the talks are on pause again, at the least for now, is the newest hurdle facing the controversy in Congress on what to do with the pending debt limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pegged June 1 because the earliest date on which the US could run out of cash to pay debts the federal government has already incurred.
Any deal to lift or suspend the debt limit might want to pass in each the GOP-led House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, and key lawmakers in each parties have acknowledged that the eventual compromise bill could possibly be unacceptable to hardliners.
The high-stakes talks over raising the debt limit resumed within the Capitol on Friday evening, hours after they were paused at midday when Republican negotiators walked out of the room, blaming the White House for holding up discussions.
