“Joe Biden Dismisses Republican Debt-Ceiling Proposals, Prepares for Spending Cuts with Tax Adjustments”

HIROSHIMA, Japan/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday dismissed the latest Republican proposals to raise the U.S. debt ceiling as unacceptable but said he was prepared to cut spending with tax adjustments to achieve to an agreement.

After the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, speaking to reporters, Joe Biden hinted that some Republicans were willing to go so far as to default to cause such damage that he could not win a second term in office. 2024.

Less than two weeks remain before the June 1 deadline, when the Treasury Department has warned that the federal government will be unable to settle its debts.

This would trigger a default that could cause chaos in financial markets and drive up interest rates.

Joe Biden said he would meet with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, on his flight back from Hiroshima.

“Much of what they have already offered is simply, frankly, unacceptable,” Joe Biden said. “They (the Republicans) have to move too.”

Discussions have intensified over the past two days. But Democratic and Republican negotiators have said meetings on Capitol Hill have failed to move forward. The two sides did not meet on Saturday.

Each qualifies the positions of the other camp as “extremist”.

“Unfortunately, the White House backed down,” Kevin McCarthy told reporters late Saturday.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations said Republicans had proposed an increase in defense spending, while cutting overall spending.

This source also indicated that Republicans in the House of Representatives want to extend the tax cuts passed by former President Donald Trump, which would increase the federal debt by 3.5 trillion dollars.

The source said the Biden administration had offered to keep non-military spending unchanged for next year.

(Report Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal, French version Matthieu Protard)