The American president invited the representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties in the House of Representatives and the Senate to the Oval Office at 4:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. GMT).
The confrontation itself is unlikely to lead to an agreement to raise the “debt ceiling”, a legislative maneuver essential so that the world’s largest economy can continue to pay its bills, its officials and its creditors.
“Clearly, the gap is huge between the position of the president and that of the Republicans,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen soberly on Monday.
“The Republicans in the House (of Representatives) are manufacturing a crisis from scratch,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre castigated the same day, calling on them to meet “unconditionally” this famous debt ceiling.
Out of the question for the Republicans, who condition their agreement on budget cuts.
“We will not vote for a text that increases the debt ceiling without substantial reforms to the budget and public spending,” said this weekend some forty conservative senators.
To lift the threat of a payment default, which would be unheard of, Joe Biden needs to convince some of the Republican senators, for lack of a sufficient majority in the upper house.
Above all, he must find common ground with the person who presides over the House of Representatives, which passed under the Republican flag last January: Kevin McCarthy, the most prominent guest at Tuesday’s meeting.
Joe Biden called him an “honest man” in an interview on Friday, but said he had to rally to “extreme” positions in his party to get his job.
The Democratic president and the Republican leader are playing big: the credibility of the heaviest debt in the world, but also their political credit.
The first, at 80, is a candidate for re-election. The second, elected with difficulty at the head of the lower house by a slim majority, must consolidate his position.
The debt ceiling so far is set at $31 trillion – the record for all sovereign debt in the world in absolute terms. This amount was reached in mid-January, but the federal government has so far managed the situation through accounting manoeuvres.
If the stalemate continues after June 1, according to the administration, the United States would not only be unable to pay bills and salaries, but also to repay its creditors.
For the first time, holders of US Treasury bonds, the king of global finance, could no longer recover their investment.
So, the White House assures him, the robust recovery for which the American president takes credit is over: the markets would collapse, the recession would be historic and unemployment would soar sharply in the United States – with consequences for the whole of Europe. Mondial economy.
2023-05-09 07:50:18
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