“Biden holds ‘constructive’ talks with Republicans on US public debt ceiling, but no agreement reached yet”

US President Joe Biden held, on Monday, a “constructive” meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, ten days before the US public debt reached its legally set ceiling, but without yet reaching an agreement that would avoid the US defaulting (for the first time in its history). for the payment of its debts.

At the beginning of their meeting at the White House, Biden said he was “optimistic that this meeting will make progress,” while McCarthy said he hoped that “we will reach common ground by the end of the day.”

Once the meeting ended, McCarthy told reporters: “I felt we had constructive talks. We don’t have an agreement yet, but I felt the discussion was constructive in areas where we have differences of opinion.”

For his part, Biden said in a statement after the meeting: “We reaffirmed that default is not an option on the table, and that the only way forward is to move forward in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement.”

There are only ten days left for the United States to raise the public debt ceiling or suspend its work, under penalty of its failure to pay its debt dues.

Race against time

These encouraging signs come after a less positive weekend, when negotiations between the White House team and Republicans ended badly last time around.

The Democratic administration and the Republican opposition are in a race against time to avoid the possibility of the United States defaulting on its obligations after June 1.

The Republicans require that Biden agree to a significant reduction in budget expenditures in exchange for their agreement to raise the debt ceiling, while the Democrats accuse them of using tactics to advance their political agenda, endangering the US economy.

Although raising the debt ceiling is usually a routine process, in recent years it has become a point of contention with Republican lawmakers seeking to obtain spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling.

Biden hopes to reach an agreement to raise the public debt ceiling in his country until after the next presidential elections, in November 2024.

But House Republicans, who have so far supported raising the debt ceiling for one year, say that if Biden wants more time, he must agree to further cuts.

The Republicans hold a narrow majority of seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats, to whom Biden belongs, have limited control of the Senate, so no agreement can be passed without bipartisan support.

Sovereign debt, which has become one of the frequent points of contention between the Democratic and Republican parties, has escalated to terrifying levels, as it exceeded $31.4 trillion on January 19.