Debt ceiling crisis: Biden says he is ‘confident’ US will reach deal and avoid default – live | US news

Negotiators representing Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are finally getting to work on finding an agreement to raise the default ceiling before America potentially defaults on 1 June. McCarthy says Republicans want tighter requirements on government aid recipients in any deal and no tax hikes, while Biden said he wasn’t interested in further restricting access to anti-poverty programs, underscoring an issue that could prove a wedge before the two sides. The president then left town for Japan on a truncated trip to Asia, where he’ll meet with leaders from the G7 as well as countries in the Quad, an alliance intended to counter China’s influence.

Here’s a rundown of the day’s news so far:

• Biden deflected criticism that by skipping planned visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea, he’s undercutting his administration’s efforts to build alliances against Beijing in the Pacific.
• The supreme court declined to block Illinois’s ban on military-style weapons from taking effect while legal challenges make their way through the courts.
• The House GOP appears ready to block a Democratic resolution that would expel indicted fabulist George Santos from the chamber. They would instead refer the resolution to the ethics committee, which is investigating him.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, said he wasn’t interested in imposing work requirements “of any consequences” on federal anti-poverty programs.

His comments, at the tail end of his speech about an hour ago, indicate that the new requirements proposed by Republicans could be a sticking point in the negotiations with Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a clip of the president’s comments:

Kevin McCarthy just concluded a press conference alongside Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate, where he ruled out increasing taxes in a debt ceiling deal and signaled he would push for stricter work requirements for recipients of federal government aid.

“No!” he replied when asked if he would consider higher taxes on wealthy Americans as part of a debt limit compromise.

He also justified the GOP’s push to insist people in programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program work in order to receive the benefits. “Why wouldn’t he want to help people get out of poverty?” McCarthy asked, tying stricter work requirements to the programs’ effectiveness – a link studies have found is uneven.

He also said he would stick to a promise made during his contentious election as speaker of the House to give lawmakers 72 hours to review any legislation before it is voted on.

“It takes so many days to get through the Senate, so many days through the House. We have a 72 hour rule, which I’m not going to break. I think the American public and all the members should have 72 hours to read what we end up with, if we’re able to end up with it,” McCarthy said.

As he departed the White House’s Roosevelt Room after speaking to reporters, Joe Biden was asked if he had given China a win by cancelling his visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea.

“No,” he replied. “We’re still formidable allies.”

And while it was difficult to hear exactly what he said, the president signaled he intended to speak or meet in the future with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

In order to return to Washington DC on Sunday, Joe Biden canceled visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea intended to shore up America’s alliances against China.

In his speech at the White House, Biden signaled he was aware of the criticism that his administration isn’t taking efforts to counter China’s influence seriously.

“In the meantime, I’ve spoken to the Australian leader [Anthony] Albanese … I’m going to be seeing him at the G7,” Biden said, adding he would also see the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at the meeting. Biden was to meet with the leaders at a meeting of the Quad regional group in Australia, which has now been canceled.

“The Quad members will be there, will get a chance to talk separately at the meeting, but it’s unlikely I’m going to be going on to Australia,” the president said.

Joe Biden said he would remain in touch with his negotiators along with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy during his trip to meet G7 leaders in Japan.

“I’ll be in constant contact with my team while I’m at the G7 and be in close touch with Speaker McCarthy and other leaders as well,” he said. “What I have done in anticipation that we won’t get it all done till I get back is, I’ve cut my trip short in order to be [here] for the final negotiations and sign the deal with the majority leader.”

He said he expected to return to Washington DC on Sunday and hold a press conference.

Joe Biden says he is “confident” that a deal will be reached to increase the debt ceiling and avoid a US government default.

“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget, that America will not default,” the president said in a speech at the White House following his meeting yesterday afternoon with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and other leaders of Congress.

“We’re going to come together because there’s no alternative way to do the right thing for the country. We have to move on.”

The supreme court has declined to block a ban on military-style weapons approved by Illinois’s legislature from taking effect, the Washington Post reports:

Lawmakers in the midwestern state had passed the measure about six months after seven people were killed and more than 30 injured in a mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

While the supreme court did not stop the law from taking effect, it allowed legal challenges filed against it to proceed in state and federal courts.

As we await Joe Biden’s speech on the debt limit, CNN reports that House Republicans believe they have the votes to refer the resolution expelling George Santos to the ethics committee – thus keeping him in the chamber for a while longer:

As we await the president’s remarks on the debt ceiling, let’s check in on the saga of George Santos, the Republican House representative who admitted to lying prolifically and is now the subject of a federal indictment.

House Democrat Robert Garcia yesterday introduced a resolution to expel him from the chamber, but it needs the support of two-thirds of lawmakers to pass and it’s unclear if Republicans, who control the House by a small majority, will support it.

According to the Democratic House whip, Katherine Clark, it’s possible the resolution’s fate will become known today, when it could come up for consideration. Republicans may vote to send the resolution to the House ethics committee, which is investigating Santos.

The White House has just announced that Joe Biden will speak at 10.45am ET “on preventing a first-ever government default”.

The speech was not previously scheduled. The president still plans to later this morning begin his journey to Japan as part of a trip that was cut short so he could return to Washington to deal with the debt limit standoff.

We’ll cover the speech on this blog as it happens.

If high-stakes negotiations and last-minute deals over raising the debt ceiling all sound familiar, that’s because they are.

This has happened repeatedly in Washington over the last decade or so, as Punchbowl News points out. Here’s a list of all the increases agreed to, and how they were agreed to, since 1993:

This morning, Kevin McCarthy went on CNBC to take a mini victory lap after Joe Biden agreed to talks over raising the debt ceiling.

But the Republican House speaker warned that the two sides don’t have much time left to reach an agreement. Here’s what he had to say:

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives said the party is moving ahead with a parliamentary tactic that could force a vote on raising the debt ceiling in case negotiations between Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy fail.

In a letter to Democrats, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, encouraged his lawmakers to support a discharge petition filed by Brendan Boyle, the ranking member of the budget committee. The unusual maneuver circumvents that usual committee process bills must undergo by bringing legislation directly to the floor, but is time consuming and faces uncertain prospects of success.

“In the next few weeks, at the reckless urging of former President Trump, we confront the possibility that right-wing extremists will intentionally plunge our country into a default crisis. Emerging from the White House meeting, I am hopeful that a real pathway exists to find an acceptable, bipartisan resolution that prevents a default,” wrote Jeffries, who attended the meeting yesterday where Biden and McCarthy agreed to appoint deputies to negotiate over an agreement.

“However, given the impending June 1 deadline and urgency of the moment, it is important that all legislative options be pursued in the event that no agreement is reached. Accordingly, later on this morning, Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle will file a discharge petition to provide a vehicle that may be necessary to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” he continued, asking every Democrat to sign the petition today.

A hint of Joe Biden’s newfound seriousness over the debt limit negotiations emerged yesterday, shortly before his meeting with Republican Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders. The giveaway was an unnamed administration official telling reporters that Biden would cut short his trip to Asia and return to Washington work on a deal – which the White House later confirmed would indeed happen, shortly after the president reversed his policy of not negotiating over the debt ceiling and appointed deputies to sit down with Republicans.

While Biden will still travel to Japan to meet with G7 leaders and the country’s prime minister, he’s cut out visits to two other countries that were intended to shore up the influence of Washington and its allies against China. Biden will no longer visit Australia and attend a meeting of nations in the Quad, a group formed to stand against Beijing’s influence. Nor will he make the first ever visit by an American president to Papua New Guinea, a stop seen as intended to bring the country under the US’s wing.

From Australia, the Guardian’s Daniel Hurst reports that by cancelling his visits to the two countries, Biden has dealt a blow to US diplomacy in Asia:

The Chinese government is probably the biggest winner from Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, forcing the cancellation of the Quad summit in Sydney.

Chinese state media outlets won’t need to muster much creative energy to weave together some of Beijing’s preferred narratives: that the US is racked by increasingly severe domestic upheaval and is an unreliable partner, quick to leave allies high and dry.

To make matters worse for the US’s standing in the region, Biden’s planned visit to PNG on Monday had been trumpeted as a clear statement of intent about his commitment to the Pacific amid growing competition for influence with China.

You can read the rest of his story below:

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden spent weeks refusing to negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling, even as the party gave no ground on the issue and the 1 June deadline for a potential US government default grew nearer.

Yesterday, the president met with the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and the two men agreed to appoint deputies to hash out a bipartisan measure that will probably include some policy concessions demanded of Democrats by conservatives and also raise the limit.

In a sign of how seriously he is taking the deadline, Biden cut short the trip to Asia he will begin today, scrapping a stop in Australia and the first visit to Papua New Guinea by a US president. And while the government estimates it will need an increase approved by the start of June to avoid missing bond and salary payments for the first time in history, lawmakers are under an even tighter deadline.

Congress only works certain days, and McCarthy has estimated a framework must be agreed to by the end of this week in order for legislation to be approved by both the House and Senate.

Here’s a look at what we expect to happen today:

• Biden is departing Washington DC for Japan, where he’ll meet with prime minister Fumio Kishida and attend a summit of G7 leaders.
• McCarthy and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell will brief reporters in the Capitol at 11:15am ET.
• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will take questions from reporters as Air Force One heads to Japan. She’ll be joined by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.