President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., walk down the House steps after attending an annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon gathering, Friday, March 17, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Biden will meet with congressional leaders today as the race against the clock to raise the U.S. debt limit gets underway in earnest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Mariam Zuhaib
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders today as the race against the clock to raise the U.S. debt limit gets underway in earnest.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the country could run out of cash as early as June 1 without an agreement.
Congressional Republicans say they won’t agree to raise the limit – once a routine procedure, now a familiar political standoff – without deep spending cuts.
Biden, meanwhile, is insisting that Congress must first agree to raise the debt ceiling without attaching any conditions.
Biden meets later today with Republican leaders Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, as well as their Democratic counterparts Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Experts say a default would spell disaster for the domestic economy, with dramatic spillover effects for allies, such as Canada, whose own economic fortunes are closely tied to the U.S.
“It is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” Yellen wrote to McCarthy last week.
“If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused House Republicans of “manufacturing a crisis” and vowed that Biden would not be moved.
“The president is not going to change course here,” Jean-Pierre said Monday. “We’ve been very, very clear that “¦ they need to do their job.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2023.
