“A debt limit meeting between US President Joe Biden and top lawmakers that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed, and the leaders agreed to meet early next week, a White House spokesperson said on Thursday,” reported Reuters.
The aides to Biden, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss raising the debt ceiling.
McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that the delay was not a sign of trouble in the talks but that he believed the staff negotiators who had been meeting this week needed to continue to talk before the principals met again.
White House officials acknowledge that they must accept some spending cuts or strict caps on future spending if they are to strike a deal, two sources said, while insisting they must preserve Biden's signature climate legislation that passed along party lines last year.
The White House portrayed the postponement as a positive development, with meetings progressing.
The news becomes all the more important and negatively impacts the risk appetite as the US Treasury Department has already signaled the Federal Government’s likely default as soon as June 1 unless the debt ceiling is raised. Also increasing the intensity of the news is the fact the US President Biden is set to attend the G7 meeting in Japan the next week.
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