May 21 (UPI) — President Joe Biden will resume negotiations on the debt ceiling with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the June default deadline nears.
McCarthy said he spoke with the president Sunday to schedule the meeting. Biden is returning to the United States after a trip to the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
“Just got off the phone with the president while he’s out of the country,” McCarthy tweeted. “My position has not changed. Washington cannot continue to spend money we do not have at the expense of children and grandchildren. Tomorrow, he and I will meet in person to continue negotiations.”
Negotiations stalled last week as Republicans remain committed to vast budget cuts while Biden and Democrats seek a resolution without strings attached. Biden had previously stated that raising the debt ceiling was “not negotiable.”
On Saturday, the president was optimistic that a resolution would be reached in time to avoid an unprecedented national default, which he has warned would be “catastrophic.”
“It goes in stages,” Biden said of the negotiations. “And what happens is the first meetings weren’t all that progressive. The second ones were. The third one was. And that, what happens is they — the carriers go back to the principals and say, ‘This is what we’re thinking about.’ And then people put down new claims.”
“I still believe we’ll be able to avoid a default and we’ll get something decent done,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed that June is a “hard deadline” for the government to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default.
During an appearance on Meet The Press, Yellen said the likelihood of the United States being able to pay all of its bills through June 15 is unlikely without a resolution.
“I indicated in my last letter to Congress that we expect to be unable to pay all of our bills in early June and possibly as soon as June 1. And I will continue to update Congress, but I certainly haven’t changed my assessment,” Yellen said. “So I think that that’s a hard deadline.”