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A high-stakes White House conference between congressional leaders and President Biden yielded little progress in ending the debt ceiling deadlock Tuesday, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying there was no “new movement” in anyone’s positions — while the commander-in-chief threatened to invoke the 14th Amendment in a last-ditch bid to avoid default.
“Everybody in this meeting reiterated the positions they were at. I didn’t see any new movement,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters outside the White House. “The president said the staffs should get back together, but I was very clear with the president – we have now just two weeks to go.”
McCarthy’s characterization of the meeting differed from the 80-year-old president’s, who called the get-together “productive.”
Biden also wouldn’t rule out the unprecedented move of raising the debt ceiling unilaterally through the 14th Amendment, which states that “[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.” However, the president acknowledged the move would be open to lengthy legal challenges.
“I have been considering the 14th Amendment,” Biden told reporters after the meeting. “And a man I have enormous respect for, Larry Tribe, who advised me for a long time, thinks that it would be legitimate but the problem is it would have to be litigated and in the meantime without an extension it would still end up in the same place.”
The sit-down between Biden, McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was organized last week after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers that the government could default as early as June 1 if the debt ceiling is not raised.
