House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that he hopes to discuss with President Joe Biden a “reasonable and responsible way that we can raise the debt ceiling” when they meet on Wednesday, February 1.
McCarthy, a California Republican, said he wants to address spending cuts along with raising the debt limit, even though the White House has ruled out linking those two issues. It will be the first meeting in the official residence since McCarthy was elected to the post in early January.
The legislator promised that the cuts to Social Security and Medicare will not be discussed.
“I know the president said he didn’t want to have any discussion (about the cuts), but I think it’s very important that our entire government is designed to find a deal,” McCarthy told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
McCarthy was elected speaker of the lower house on January 7 after 15 rounds of voting.
News of the long-awaited White House meeting comes with a looming debt limit crisis and House Republicans poised for confrontation.
McCarthy was eager to bring Biden to the negotiating table in hopes of fulfilling promises the GOP leader made to holdouts during his campaign to become head of the House to reduce federal spending to budget levels of 2022, which would mean a considerable budget cut of 8%.
The White House has made it clear that Biden is not willing to accept political concessions in exchange for lifting the debt limit. The federal government reached that limit in early January, and the Treasury Department has implemented extraordinary measures to prevent a potential default for at least a few more months.
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