In an interview on US media program "This Week," Lankford criticized the president for refusing to negotiate despite the imminent nature of the problem. He highlighted the expectation that such a situation would arise and called for productive negotiations.
Lankford pointed out that even when Treasury Secretary mentioned the possibility of a June 1 deadline, Biden suggested discussing the matter sometime in the following week. Lankford expressed surprise at the president's unwillingness to promptly address the issue through negotiation.
Lankford expressed his hope that Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) would find common ground during their scheduled meeting on Tuesday. The senator emphasized the existence of wasteful spending in the government and stressed the need for a discussion on priorities, spending, and debt reduction.
"Everyone knows that there’s areas of waste in government. We should actually sit down and be able to talk about it and say, 'What are the priorities? How are we going to spend on those priorities and to make sure that we’re realigning and not just saying what we’re spending now we need to just keep spreading and keep adding debt at the rate that we’re adding it?'" Lankford said.
The Treasury Department has implemented extraordinary measures since January to prevent a government default on its debt. The ongoing lack of negotiation between the president and lawmakers has raised concerns about the potential consequences of a default.