Republicans walk out of talks on raising US debt ceiling

Republican negotiators walked out of debt ceiling talks with the White House on Friday, raising questions about whether lawmakers will be able to strike a deal and prevent default before a June 1 deadline.

Garrett Graves, the Republican congressman from Louisiana who has emerged as the point person for Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, left the meeting room on Capitol Hill where the talks were taking place Friday morning, telling reporters that negotiators were “press break.” Will give

“Until people are willing to have a proper conversation about how you can actually step forward and do the right thing, we’re not going to sit here talking to ourselves,” Graves said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Graves’ harsh words came just a day after McCarthy suggested that a deal to raise the debt ceiling could be put through the House of Representatives as soon as next week. Before being signed into law by President Joe Biden, any debt ceiling deal would need to pass the House, which is controlled by Republicans, and the Senate, which is held by Democrats.

Lawmakers are scrambling to strike a deal before June 1, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has identified as the so-called X-date when the government risks running out of cash and defaulting on its obligations .

“We are not there, we have not agreed to anything yet. But I see a way that we can come to an agreement,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday, in remarks that would gained momentum and sent the blue-chip S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite to their highest levels since August.

But members of McCarthy’s own party poured cold water on his optimism later Thursday when he suggested they would not support any deal struck with the White House.

The Freedom Caucus of right-wing lawmakers issued a statement indicating they were prepared to support only a Republican bill that recently passed the House to raise the debt ceiling to cut spending. Which is a non-starter with the Democrats.

The Freedom Caucus said, “There should be no further discussion until the legislation is passed by the Senate.”

The statement from the Freedom Caucus outlined a difficult political balancing act for McCarthy as he seeks to keep his often-fractious convention together while at the same time brokering a deal that satisfies Biden and congressional Democrats.

Biden is similarly walking a political tightrope as he seeks to strike a deal without alienating more progressive members of his own party, who have frowned at the suggestion that the president might sign off on Republican requests that include Includes strict work requirements for people claiming social welfare benefits. ,

Biden traveled to Japan on Wednesday for G7 meetings but is cutting his trip short and will return to Washington on Sunday in light of the debt ceiling impasse.