It’s a race against time to find an understanding. In fact, one week is missing from what could be the first bankruptcy of the United States if the debt ceiling were not raised
With the phone call between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy that the Republican leader described as “productive”, the stalemate that had blocked the negotiations for an agreement on raising the debt ceiling. The president and the speaker of the Chamber will meet today, after their staff sat down again yesterday evening at the table to seek a compromise that would allow avert the risk of a catastrophic default that could trigger as early as June 1st.
According to the Republicans, the crucial part of the negotiations is that of the scope and duration of the restrictions on federal spending, which they are asking for as a condition for giving the green light to the increase in the debt ceiling. “The red line is to spend less, and until we achieve that, the rest is truly irrelevant,” the Republican negotiators say.
After receiving Biden’s call from Air Force One that brought the president back to Washington after the G7, McCarthy he was nonetheless optimistic: “The discussion with the president was, I think, productive. I think we can solve these problems if he understands the situation”.
For his part, Biden before speaking with the republican leader he had urged the republicans, during the final G7 press conference, to “move from their extremist positions because what they have already proposed is frankly unacceptable”, underlining that he is not willing to accept drastic cuts in spending social to maintain the tax cuts for the richest enacted at the time of the Trump administration
With today’s talk between Biden and McCarthy, an intense week of negotiations opens which will be crucial in order to be able to avoid a default which would have devastating consequences not only for the United States but for the global economic balance.
Source-www.adnkronos.com