Debt ceiling talks between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers from both parties have been set for May 9, according to the Washington Post, citing a White House official who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
On April 26, House Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 to raise the debt limits by $1.5 trillion, substantially reduce spending levels for most recent federal programs and repeal some of the president's legislative initiatives.
For their part, Biden and the majority of the Democratic Party said they would not accept anything less than a clean debt ceiling increase. The president even threatened to veto the GOP measure. However, late last week, Axios reported that divisions have been brewing for quite a while between House and Senate Democrats.
A group of Democratic representatives sent a letter to Biden and McCarthy urging the president to sit with the House speaker and work out a bipartisan solution. Some Democrats also reportedly privately approached McCarthy and told him that they considered Biden's unwillingness to negotiate "wrong", as per the House speaker.
The House Dems' dissent allegedly irritated Democrat senators who said that no budget cuts would ever be on the table. Joe Manchin appeared to be the only Democratic senator open to talks with McCarthy.
To complicate matters further, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen revealed on Monday that the US government could run out of cash to pay its bills in just four weeks without additional borrowing.
In a letter to lawmakers, Yellen warned that the economic consequences of inaction would be dire and could cause "severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests."
"I respectfully urge Congress to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible," Yellen said.
The nation reached its $31.38 trillion spending limit in January 2023. Since that time, the Biden administration has conducted a series of special budgetary maneuvers to conserve cash and buy time. However, time is running out for the US government.
The US press reported that even though Biden agreed to hold talks with the GOP, he nonetheless again lambasted House Republicans for their recent debt ceiling legislation - claiming that "their extreme MAGA plan would cut critical funding for education, public safety, including cut 60,000 public school teachers, take health care and food assistance away from millions of working families." This hardly appears to be a good start for the May debt ceiling talks, does it?