White House denies McCarthy budget negotiation request: ‘Stop playing games’

The White House has denied House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s request to meet with President Joe Biden to discuss the issue of raising the US debt ceiling before the country defaults on its loans this summer. The press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stated that members of Congress have a constitutional obligation to lift the debt limit “as they did three times in the previous administration without conditions.”

Business leaders and economists have warned that the threat of default risks the livelihoods of American small businesses, retirees, and working families, and would give a massive win to China, which underscoring the need for Congress to address the debt limit. Jean-Pierre urged the Republicans to pass a clean debt ceiling bill and quit threatening the country’s economic recovery.

Biden is interested in a separate conversation about the nation’s fiscal future, but Jean-Pierre insists that he wants to see a budget from McCarthy and his extreme MAGA caucus first. McCarthy stated in a letter to Biden that he was prepared to discuss different ways to achieve trillions of dollars in savings and economic growth, but the White House has yet to accept his invitation.

Without an increase in the debt limit, the Treasury Department will depend on extraordinary measures to pay the country’s debts after it reached the $31.4 trillion ceiling in January.