Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) faulted the White House for taking too long to enter into debt ceiling negotiations after talks hit a snag on Friday, hurting both sides’ chances to reach a deal to avert a disastrous default.
“.@POTUS waited months before agreeing to negotiate with @SpeakerMcCarthy on a spending deal. They are the only two who can reach an agreement,” McConnell tweeted. “It is past time for the White House to get serious. Time is of the essence.”
SCHUMER PROJECTS DEBT CEILING OPTIMISM AS PROGRESSIVES FRET ABOUT DEAL
The Kentucky Republican has been adamant since January that he and Senate Republicans should take a backseat while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Joe Biden work toward finding a solution to raising the debt ceiling. After negotiators acknowledged talks were put on pause Friday after an apparent impasse over reverting to 2022 spending levels, the Senate Republican leader promptly took to Twitter to back up McCarthy and GOP negotiators.
.@POTUS waited months before agreeing to negotiate with @SpeakerMcCarthy on a spending deal. They are the only two who can reach an agreement. It is past time for the White House to get serious. Time is of the essence.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) May 19, 2023
McConnell’s emphasis on Biden’s personal involvement differed slightly from his message following a White House meeting on Tuesday, in which Biden and McCarthy appointed negotiators to handle talks. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) is handling talks on the GOP side, while White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell are representing the Democrats.
On Tuesday, McConnell endorsed the new bilateral structure of the talks and said it could help the process move forward.
“The president agreed to designate somebody to be the lead, as I recommended that President Trump do in 2019. He faced the same situation,” McConnell explained following the meeting on Tuesday. “Do you think he wanted to negotiate with Speaker Pelosi? Of course not! I said you have no choice.”
As recently as Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and McCarthy projected optimism about negotiations and even suggested an agreement could be finalized this weekend and a vote could happen in the House as soon as next week.
However, there have been emerging signs that a deal could be challenging to reach, beyond the current hiccups regarding spending levels. A group of 11 senators sent Biden a letter Thursday urging him to consider invoking the 14th Amendment to lift the debt ceiling on his own, many of them objecting to imposing additional work requirements for social benefit programs. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also reasserted his objection to adding the new work requirements for social benefits, a key priority of Republicans.
The House Freedom Caucus put out its position on the debt ceiling negotiations, calling for “no further discussion” on legislation to raise the nation’s borrowing limit until the Senate passes the bill House Republicans approved last month that would pair an increase in the borrowing limit with steep spending cuts.
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While it’s unclear when talks will resume, time is running out for key players to strike a deal, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterating earlier this week that the country is on track to default on its debt on June 1, giving Congress and the White House about two weeks to make an agreement and pass it out of both chambers.