House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has accepted an invitation to meet with President Biden at the White House to discuss the debt ceiling — as the US barrels towards a potential economic catastrophe if lawmakers fail to raise or suspend the nation’s borrowing authority.
The high-stakes meeting, first reported by CNN, will take place on May 9 at the White House and will mark Biden and McCarthy’s first encounter since February.
Biden on Monday invited all Congressional leaders to the meeting, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
McCarthy, a California Republican, spoke to the president and accepted his invitation Monday while visiting Jerusalem, a source told The Hill.
McConnell said he spoke with Biden and expects to speak with him again, though he did not say whether he will be joining his colleagues at the White House next week.
Biden’s bipartisan invitation came just hours after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen issued a dire warning that the US government could default on its obligations as early as June 1, unless Congress acts to either raise or suspend the debt limit.
Yellen wrote in a letter that “we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government’s obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time.”
McCarthy reacted to Yellen’s update by saying “the clock is ticking.”
Biden and Senate Democrats have demanded that a bill to raise the $31.4 trillion cap be passed with no strings attached.
House Republicans, led by McCarthy, want discretionary spending cuts for non-defense programs hitched to the debt ceiling legislation.
Last week, the GOP-controlled House passed a bill that would allow the federal government to borrow another $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, in exchange for $4.8 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years.
Schumer said that the House debt bill was “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
On the day Republicans passed their legislation, Biden told reporters that he would be “happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended…that’s not negotiable.”
In the White House meeting next Tuesday, Biden plans to stress to congressional leaders that they must take action to avoid a debt ceiling breach without conditions, according to an administration official speaking to NBC News.
The goal of the meeting, according to the source, is to discuss “the urgency of preventing default.”
Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries welcomed Biden’s proposed meeting, saying in a joint statement Monday night that it was the “appropriate place” to hash out ways to avoid a government default.
“That is the appropriate place to debate and discuss our nation’s fiscal picture — not in a hostage-situation in which extreme MAGA Republicans try to impose their radical agenda on America,” they said.
“We do not have the luxury of waiting until June 1 to come together, pass a clean bill to avoid a default and prevent catastrophic consequences for our economy and millions of American families,” the statement continued. “Republicans cannot allow right-wing extremism to hold our nation hostage.”
With Post wires