Biden expresses optimism about debt talks despite sharp statements from both sides

President Biden on Saturday brushed off vociferous statements from both sides in the debt and spending talks that gripped Washington, dismissed them as little more than the stance typical of any negotiation and expressed confidence that he is still in will be able to strike a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.

Speaking on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Mr Biden told reporters he was not worried about debt talks at home. “Not at all,” he said. He later added, “I still believe we can avoid a default and do something decent.”

Mr Biden’s comments came after a tumultuous day of thrust and parry across the oceans. Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday abruptly announced a “pause” in talks aimed at raising the debt ceiling to avoid a national default, while at the same time adopting ways to reduce the deficit, to tell his negotiators later in the day send it back to the table. But that session was cut short after just an hour, and the White House subsequently released a blistering statement accusing Republicans of sticking to “extreme MAGA priorities.”

The president called all that just theater that no one should take too seriously. “It’s going in stages,” he told reporters during a meeting with Australia’s prime minister. “And what happens is the first meetings weren’t that progressive, the second was, the third was, and then what happens is the carriers” – meaning the negotiators – “go back to the principals and say this is what we’ll think about and then people will make new claims.”

Noting that he has seen many such negotiations in his half-century in Washington, he made it clear that he believed such positioning was little more than for show — presumably including the statement his own staff issued barely an hour earlier. Each party, he said, must take a strong stance to get the best deal for itself. That, he added, didn’t mean they couldn’t eventually come to a consensus.

Mr Biden’s public confidence in the prospects of a deal has sparked discontent among some liberals who fear he will give too much away to Mr McCarthy’s Republicans, including job requirements for recipients of aid to the needy. As it stands, the president has essentially dropped his demand that he not negotiate spending cuts as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling; the White House argues that the spending talks now underway are theoretically separate from the issue of raising the debt ceiling, a feature few others accept.

For days, Mr Biden and his aides who traveled with him in Japan expressed optimism that they would be able to close a deal by the time the president returned to Washington on Sunday or shortly after, well in time to raise the debt ceiling before the nation would do that. otherwise be in default as early as June 1. The White House has essentially approved the president’s schedule for next week, presumably to allow for further talks.

But his comments to reporters on Saturday left a mixed bag of messages within hours. The White House kicked off the day in Japan with a briefing by Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary, who gave a more measured assessment of the talks than the positive tone of recent days, saying a deal would depend on whether the Mr. McCarthy ‘will negotiate in good faith’ and that everyone must recognize that ‘you don’t get everything you want’.

She stressed that “we need Republicans and Democrats,” citing concerns that Congressional Democrats could back out of any deal if they sense the president has gone too far. But she denied that the White House was more pessimistic, using the word “optimistic” 14 times during her briefing.

Three hours later, after Mr. Biden spoke with his negotiators in Washington, his communications director, Ben LaBolt, issued a very different statement that never used the word “optimistic.”

“Republicans are holding the economy hostage and pushing us to the brink of bankruptcy, which could cost millions of jobs and plunge the country into recession after two years of steady job and wage growth,” LaBolt said.

“Republicans,” he added, are “recycling a barely watered-down version of their extreme budget proposal” that would result in cuts to education, law enforcement and health care, while plans to hire more IRS agents to crack down on tax fraud and expand tax breaks approved under President Donald J. Trump. He added that any deal should include tax increases for the wealthy and businesses, not just spending cuts.

“There remains a way forward to reach a reasonable agreement between two parties if Republicans come back to the table to negotiate in good faith,” LaBolt said. “But President Biden will not accept a wish list of extreme MAGA priorities that would punish the middle class and most needy Americans and hinder our economic progress.”

The federal government hit its $31.4 trillion statutory debt ceiling months ago. The Treasury Department has applied a series of accounting maneuvers to avoid being breached, but has said it could run out of options as early as June 1, putting the country in default for the first time because it failed to meet its obligations. would pay unless Congress and the president came to an agreement.