(TheRedWire.com) – This week President Biden and Speaker McCarthy (R-Calif.) have been engaging in a tit-for-tat battle over the debt ceiling and McCarthy’s plans for the increase.
Congress is starting again following a two-week recess. Currently, the talks to achieve a debt ceiling deal that would help them avoid a default have been stretched with neither side appearing willing to cave into the other side’s requests.
President Biden is maintaining his position that the debt ceiling should be raised without any provisions. However, McCarthy, who is working with a relatively divided conference, spoke of his plans for the debt ceiling increase on Wall Street Monday.
Still, neither of the two sides appears to be willing to have the talks resume. On Monday, McCarthy criticized the president for not attempting another talk since their initial meeting to discuss the debt ceiling on Feb. 1. The White House on the other hand has maintained that they would like to see a proposal from House Republicans before resuming talks.
Andrew Bater, a White House spokesman, noted that “Speaker McCarthy is breaking with the bipartisan norm he followed under [former President] Trump” by trying to hold the economy hostage and threaten “hard-working Americans’ jobs and retirement savings.” He added that a speech and a plan are different things, but the priorities of the Republican party are clear.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also spoke up against McCarthy’s plan for a one-year debt-ceiling extension stating that it was a “terrible idea.”
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