The White House has repeatedly said it will not negotiate on a debt ceiling increase.
Topline
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched a personal attack against President Joe Biden on Thursday, as negotiations between the White House and GOP lawmakers surrounding two high-stakes fiscal issues—the debt ceiling and the federal budget—are deadlocked.Key Facts
McCarthy offered Thursday to meet with Biden “tonight” to discuss increasing the U.S.’s federal borrowing limit, and offered to bring “soft foods” to a White House lunch if Biden would agree to a sit-down, an apparent nod to the president’s age (at 80, Biden is the oldest president in history).
The offer is a non-starter, however, as the White House has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a debt ceiling increase with no strings attached and said it will not negotiate with Republicans on increasing the borrowing limit, which the federal government is expected to reach some time in late summer.
The Biden Administration, which is pushing the GOP to instead negotiate its spending priorities through the budget process, launched a fresh wave of attacks against Republican leaders on Thursday, releasing an internal memo that highlights McCarthy’s and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (La.) statements in January that they would use the budget as the main vehicle for their spending priorities, Axios reported.
In one of the interviews unearthed by the White House, McCarthy told CBS: “our very first responsibility, we both should have to pass a budget .
