President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are meeting Monday evening to try to make progress on negotiations to raise the debt ceiling.
The high-stakes meeting comes after a weekend of ups and downs in the talks with Biden on the other side of the world.
Representatives for Biden and McCarthy have been meeting to try to narrow the range of issues keeping the sides from agreeing with just more than a week to go before a June 1 deadline set by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Yellen warns the nation will run out of the ability to pay all its bills by as soon as next Thursday without a deal.
The Hill's Aris Folley took a look at a number of the outstanding sticking points in the talks on Monday afternoon.
The sticking points include how much to limit spending on defense and non-defense sectors, with Republicans much more keen on cutting non-defense discretionary spending.
House Republicans determined to cut spending are depending that domestic spending be capped at fiscal year 2022 levels, a non-starter so far for Democrats.
McCarthy endorsed the idea again last week, saying "we can't be spending more money next year. We have to spend less than we spent the year before. It's pretty easy."
GOP demands to put more onerous work requirements on federal benefits programs are a second major sticking point.
Other issues also threaten to make an agreement more difficult to come by, from White House suggestions that tax increases be considered to lower budget deficits and GOP proposals to bring in border security measures.
While it is possible to see some of those issues being scuttled, the work requirements may be a tough one to solve.
At least the two sides are talking.
And they may be feeling more pressure as financial markets start to pay more attention to the problems in Washington.
Both Biden and McCarthy signaled optimism ahead of the 5:30 p.m. meeting on Monday, but it seems unlikely this week's talks will be without more drama and twists and turns.
The House is in Washington, but lawmakers will be wondering if they'll be kept through the weekend as negotiators try to reach a deal, craft that into legislation, then sell it to members of both parties.
The Senate returns next week, and any legislation will need to get through both chambers. Given the tiny Democratic majority in the Senate, a deal will have to win support from both parties — a point Democrats have repeatedly made.
No comments:
Post a Comment