On the 27th (local time), President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tentatively agreed to discuss an increase in the debt ceiling, 9 days before the deadline for defaulting on the US national debt (June 5).
President Biden and Chairman McCarthy spoke on the phone for approximately an hour and a half from 6 pm on this day and agreed in principle to raise the debt limit and reduce government spending, the Associated Press and Reuters reported.
Both sides reportedly agreed to limit government spending for two years in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
In particular, The Associated Press reported that fiscal year 2024 will freeze spending and set a budget increase ceiling in 2025. In this regard, Reuters said that non-defense spending will remain the same in fiscal year 2024, and there will be no restrictions on government spending after 2025.
It was also decided to strengthen the labor requirements for welfare recipients from the federal government, such as food stamps (a food subsidy program), which became a problem at the last minute, as requested by the Republican Party.
Previously, the White House and the Republican Party through working-level discussions until today reached an opinion approach in the major framework of cutting federal government spending for two years while considering next year’s presidential election and raising the debt ceiling from 31.4 trillion dollars (he won about 4.2 trillion) instead.
“I’ve seen progress (negotiations), and I feel we’re closer to a deal now than I’ve felt a long time ago,” US media reported, McCarthy said in a meeting with reporters in Congress earlier this morning.
However, last-minute difficulties persisted as disagreements had still not been narrowed on detailed items such as strengthening working conditions.
Representative Patrick McHenry, a member of the Republican negotiating team, met with reporters before the phone call between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, saying, “There are big, complicated issues that remain.” This has to be tackled at the level,” he said.
In this situation, President Biden and Chairman McCarthy reached a tentative agreement through telephone negotiations.
CNN reported that the White House and the Republican Party planned to go through an internal process of ratifying the tentative deal overnight.
To this end, the Republican Party intends to hold a conference call for its members tonight.
However, there are also quite a few hardliners within the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, so it is not clear whether internal consultations will proceed smoothly.
Accordingly, attention is being paid to see if the White House and the Republicans will complete the debt limit negotiations as tentatively agreed.
