1 year ago
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The nation is one day closer to a default on its debt, an event so potentially catastrophic that only a sociopath could root for it. President Joe Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders again Friday, while White House and congressional staff keep meeting to try to move the process along toward a negotiated settlement.
The White House continues to insist it isn’t negotiating on default—Biden won’t exchange preserving the full faith and credit of the U.S. for anything—but these are negotiations and there’s every expectation from Republicans that they’re going to get something in return. It’s the scope of that something that’s the big question, and whether anything Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could agree on would pass muster with the House Freedom Caucus members who are pretty much in control.
Following his meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday, Biden told reporters that one area of agreement might be in clawing back some unspent COVID-19 relief funds. He said he’d “take a hard look at it” and “it’s on the table.” McCarthy is also pushing for “reforms” in the permitting process for energy production, namely making it a lot easier for oil and gas companies to drill everything. He’s got an ally in Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has been pushing the proposal since last year. The White House is demanding that the energy proposal be delinked from the negotiations, but Manchin would happily play spoiler of any clean debt limit bill over the issue.
