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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with President Biden on Wednesday for one-on-one talks over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, a faceoff that marked a sea change in Washington as Republicans grabbed a seat at the negotiating table.
Mr. McCarthy emerged from the White House with the negotiations still up in the air but voicing optimism that his hourlong conversation with Mr. Biden set a new tone after two years of single-party rule.
“The president and I had a good first meeting,” he said. “We have different perspectives, but we both laid out some of our vision of where we want to get to. I believe, after laying all of that out, I can see where we can find common ground. I think the American people would appreciate that.”
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said he made it clear to Mr. Biden where the House stood in the debt talks.
“The current path we are on, we cannot sustain. We’ve got to change the trajectory to put us on a path to balance. How we get there will be our discussions,” he said.
The talks capped weeks of partisan back-and-forth over Republican demands that the White House and Democrat-led Senate agree to negotiate spending levels before the House would raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
Last month, the Treasury Department began taking “extraordinary measures” to stave off default when the government hits its $31.4 trillion borrowing capacity. Those emergency measures are expected to give the government enough breathing room to cover day-to-day expenses until the summer.
Mr. Biden initially balked at Mr. McCarthy’s demands for negotiations. He called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling “without conditions” and accused Republicans of using the full faith and credit of the nation as a bargaining chip in their quest to cuts vital social programs such as Social Security.
