Manchin Urges Biden to Negotiate With Republicans on Debt Limit

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) sharply criticized President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate terms for raising the nation’s debt ceiling and urged him to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to arrive at a compromise.

“For the sake of the country, I urge President Biden to come to the table, propose a plan for real and substantive spending cuts and deficit reduction, and negotiate now,” Manchin wrote on Twitter on April 20.

The nudge came a day after McCarthy unveiled legislation to increase the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first, combined with caps on future spending, the repeal of certain tax credits, the imposition of work requirements for some recipients of public assistance, and easing regulations on the extraction of fossil fuels.

If enacted, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 would ease concerns about a possible default on U.S. obligations and push a more permanent resolution of the debt crisis into the election season.

Manchin admitted that he did not agree with all elements of the Republican plan but urged the president to negotiate over it.

“I applaud Speaker McCarthy for putting forward a proposal that would prevent default and rein in federal spending. While I do not agree with everything proposed, the fact of the matter is that it is the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default,” Manchin wrote.

The 75-year-old Democrat is known as a moderate and has occasionally broken ranks with his party. He opposed Biden’s Build Back Better Act in 2021. In 2013, he joined Republicans in changing Senate rules to allow some decisions to be made by a simple majority rather than a two-thirds majority.

Biden and McCarthy met on February 1 to discuss lifting the debt ceiling, but Biden has since refused to enter talks. The president has said he will not negotiate terms for raising the limit because to do so would put the full faith and credit of the nation at risk.

Regarding spending cuts, Biden has said there’s no point in a meeting until the Republicans unveil their targeted reductions, something they had not done until April 19.

Biden released his 20