US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters on Wednesday that he was sending his negotiation team “down to the White House to try to finish up the negotiations [there],” referring to ongoing debt ceiling talks.
White House negotiators include Steve Ricchetti, Shalanda Young, and Louisa Terrell, and GOP negotiators Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Garret Graves (R-LA), who were invited by the White House to talk.
McCarthy, who called his previous meeting with US President Joe Biden “productive,” also told reporters there were “a number of places we are still far apart” but added that he thinks “we can make progress today — I’m hoping that we can make progress today.”
The talks began at noon local time and were still ongoing by 8:00 p.m.
“We’ve offered a lot of concessions. The cap on the spending is a Democrat idea,” McCarthy said on Wednesday, referring to his party.
“The work requirement was a Democrat idea. I can’t help it if the Democrats have become so extreme and now is a party of Bernie Sanders than the party where Joe Biden was elected. Joe Biden is the president of the United States. He is the head Democrat. But if [Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)] and Bernie Sanders is going to run their party, that’s not my fault. I’m not even sure Bernie Sanders is a registered Democrat.”
Even as Congress faces a June 1 deadline, the lower congressional chamber is allowing members to break for Memorial Day weekend after votes on Thursday. The politicians will be given a 24-hour notice if they’re needed back in Washington, DC, to vote, and will be given a 72-hour review of the bill before voting.
News that the House will be breaking for the upcoming holiday weekend runs contrary to a statement made on Tuesday by McCarthy, who said the chamber would stay in session for as long as it takes to pass a bill.
"I don’t know how my colleagues across the aisle who voted for the 'Default on America Act' are going to look our veterans in the eye this Memorial Day,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) said, referring to the GOP's ceiling bill.
“Now you’re sending us home with no resolution," Clark continued. "That’s the plan, to default, to run out the clock.”
Meanwhile, the panic of not having hammered out a deal has caused Fitch Ratings to put the US' triple-A status on a "rating negative watch," causing the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures to fall 60 points.