House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., brought a hammer to the chiseling out of a debt ceiling agreement Monday, tweeting a warning that President Joe Biden and Democrats need to curb spending and stop "borrowing money from China."
"President Biden wants to spend more money than the federal government did at the height of the pandemic," McCarthy tweeted Monday morning. "American taxpayers just cannot afford to keep borrowing money from China."
The spend-and-borrow plans in the Biden budget will ultimately "create more inflation," McCarthy said in a television appearance shared in the tweet.
Biden is planning to meet with McCarthy in the Oval Office at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to the White House.
Any deal to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit must pass both chambers of Congress before Biden could sign it into law. The U.S. Treasury has warned it could be unable to pay all its bills as soon as June 1, although Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., told
Newsmax this weekend that's a moving target and could be moved back one month amid the June 15 quarterly tax receipts.
Staff members from both sides reconvened at the Capitol before the meeting, U.S. media reported, the morning after a 2½-hour session and what McCarthy described as a "productive" call with Biden.
Biden also struck an upbeat tone about Sunday's conversation, telling reporters, "It went well."
A failure to lift the debt ceiling would trigger a default that would shake financial markets and drive interest rates higher on everything from car payments to credit cards. Ongoing uncertainty is already weighing on investors and stocks.
McCarthy's Republicans control the House 222-213, while Biden's Democrats hold the Senate 51-49, making it difficult to reach a bipartisan deal that would secure enough votes to pass.
Republicans are pushing for discretionary spending cuts and defense spending increases, among other demands, in exchange for backing an increase in the government's self-imposed borrowing limit that would cover the costs of lawmakers' previously approved spending and tax cuts.
Democrats want to hold spending steady at this year's levels, while Republicans want to return to 2022 levels. A plan passed by the House last month would cut a wide swath of government spending by 8% next year.
Biden, who has made the economy a centerpiece of his domestic agenda and is seeking reelection, has said he would consider spending cuts alongside tax adjustments but that Republicans' latest offer was "unacceptable."
Both sides must also weigh any concessions with pressure from hardline factions within their own parties.
Some far-right House Freedom Caucus members have urged a halt to talks, demanding that the Senate adopt their House-passed legislation, which has been rejected by Democrats. Republican former President Donald Trump, who is seeking another term after losing to Biden in the 2020 election, has urged Republicans to force a default if they do not achieve all their goals, downplaying any economic consequences.
Liberal Democrats have pushed back against any cuts that would harm families and lower-income Americans, with some urging Biden to act on his own by invoking the Constitution's 14th Amendment — an untested move he on Sunday said would face constraints.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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