President Joe Biden is determined to hold the line on demanding a clean debt ceiling increase as he prepares to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday, White House officials say.
Biden’s goal is to move spending negotiations onto a separate track, officials say, removing the threat of default while giving Republicans assurances he will engage in good-faith negotiations about federal spending.
At the moment, it’s a far-away goal.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy remains similarly determined to extract spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling — and Senate Republicans have largely closed ranks around him, vowing not to raise the debt ceiling without “substantive” budget reforms.
Amid low expectations for the two sides to make much progress towards a deal on Tuesday, the White House is making clear it will continue to ramp up its public pressure campaign on Republicans.
Biden is poised to focus on ramping up the public pressure on Republicans, traveling to New York on Wednesday to take aim at one of the 18 House Republicans hailing from districts Biden won in 2020.
All 18 of those Republicans have backed McCarthy’s spending-cuts-for-debt-ceiling plan, but White House officials hope pressure will build on those Republicans in particular as the country barrels toward a potential June 1 default.
