Debt limit talks hit snag as GOP declares a ‘pause’
Negotiations between top White House officials and Republican congressional officials over a deal to raise the debt cap hit a snag Friday when a GOP leader said in the talks it was time to “press pause,” lamenting that it President Biden’s team was unreasonable and no progress could be made.
It was a setback in the effort to reach an agreement before the June 1 deadline to avert a default, though it was not clear whether the delay was a tactical retreat or a lasting blow to the chances of an agreement .
The stop came a day after the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus declared that Republicans should abandon negotiations with Mr Biden and push for their debt limits legislation, which demanded major cuts in exchange for raising the federal borrowing ceiling and a dead letter in the Democratic Party. controlled senate.
The abrupt announcement of a pause also came just a day after chairman Kevin McCarthy told reporters he believed negotiators could, in principle, reach a deal as early as the weekend. But on Friday, Mr. McCarthy and his deputies struck a very different tone, saying White House officials refused to go their way with budget cuts.
Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana, who was appointed by the speaker to lead debt limit negotiations, walked out of bipartisan talks, saying Mr Biden’s team was not willing to have “reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward ”.
“We need to get movement at the White House, and we have no movement,” said Mr. McCarthy to reporters at the Capitol not long after. “We have to pause.”
He hinted that a major sticking point was how to limit federal spending. Republicans in the House of Representatives last month approved a debt limit bill that would raise the country’s borrowing limit until next year in exchange for freezing spending at last year’s levels for a decade.
“We can’t spend more money, we have to spend less than last year,” said Mr. McCarthy.
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, said government officials took the failure of the negotiations seriously and acknowledged that there were significant differences between the parties, particularly around Mr McCarthy’s stance on limiting federal spending.
Mr McCarthy is under pressure from the far-right Freedom Caucus not to agree to a deal.
“No more discussion about watering down,” the group tweeted Thursday, referring to the House debt limit bill passed. “Period of time.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reporting contributed.