Talks ‘close’ but ‘not there yet’
Graves arrives at the White House for the LSU ceremony
Republican chief negotiator Garret Graves has arrived at the White House.
He shook hands with the attendees, then sat in the front row. He was spotted leaving the Hill earlier, presumably leaving little time for side conversations between them.
Graves did not attend LSU, whose women’s basketball team is honored today for winning the national championship, but the school is located in her district.
‘No,’ GOP won’t back down on job demands, Rep. Graves says
Rep. Garret Graves, one of McCarthy’s top negotiators, told reporters “hell no” when asked if Republicans would back down on labor demands in negotiations. He said work demands are still the biggest sticking point, but there are still several outstanding issues.
On a possible deal today or this weekend, Graves said progress had been made in some key areas of contention, but they continued to have “major issues” on which they had not resolved. the gap.
Key GOP negotiator expected in White House…but not for debt ceiling talks
Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a top House Republican negotiator, has a seat reserved for him at the White House — at a ceremony honoring the women’s basketball team — ball LSU Tigers from his home state this afternoon.
Photos seen by NBC News show Graves reserved a seat for him at the 2 p.m. ceremony at the White House where Biden and the First Lady will welcome the women’s team from Louisiana State University and celebrate their championship win. NCAA 2023.
Biden won’t use 14th Amendment to raise debt ceiling, Treasury official says
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo today said Biden would not use the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, marking the administration’s most explicit rejection of the proposal.
During an appearance on CNN this morning, Adeyemo was asked if Biden would consider using the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling if the country nears default without a bipartisan deal.
“I think the president and the secretary have been very clear that this won’t solve our problems now. So, yes, that’s a no,” Adeyemo said, adding that the only way forward is through Congress. for Congress to raise the debt ceiling.
“We don’t have a plan B that allows us to meet the commitments we made to our creditors, to our elders, to our veterans, to the American people,” Adeyemo said. “The only plan we have is the one that has worked for over 200 years in this country, which is that the United States of America must pay all its bills and pay them on time.”
Republicans are silent – it often means a deal is near
As high-stakes negotiations enter a do-or-die phase ahead of the holiday weekend, the usually spirited and leaky GOP conference remained silent on the broad outlines of the emerging deal.
“I’m not concerned about anyone making comments right now about what they think they are or aren’t,” McCarthy said this morning when asked about reports of a two-way deal. years concluded behind closed doors. “Whenever we reach an agreement, we will make sure to inform our entire conference first.”
Those briefings are yet to take place, with Republicans across the party’s ideological gamut saying they don’t know the contours of the deal.
“No smoke signals yet,” a freedom caucus member told NBC News, saying Republican leaders had told them “nothing” specific about the deal.
Even usually talkative members close to the speaker offered nothing but apologies today for what little they could share on a deal they expect to be asked to vote on next week.
In Washington negotiations, silence can mean many things. This often indicates that an agreement is close, with particularly sensitive issues coming to the fore and the circle of knowledgeable participants shrinking.
Would that be the case here? Connoisseurs do not say so.
“Everyone wants a detail on this. Everybody wants a tweet,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, one of McCarthy’s top dealmakers, said Friday morning. “I want a deal that changes the trajectory of the country.”
Democrats see two-year debt limit extension taking shape
The White House is pushing for a two-year debt ceiling extension and is privately optimistic it will get there, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations.
A two-year deal would represent an attempt to resolve the issue until after the 2024 election.
One of the sources said negotiators were “in on a 2-year debt limit extension”, adding that “we are close” to a final deal but are still working through some issues.
It’s unclear whether Republicans have agreed to lock this down, as various details of the negotiations remain fluid. McCarthy avoided questions on Friday about whether there would be a two-year extension, but said negotiators “made progress last night” and need to “make more progress now.”
The bill passed by McCarthy’s House provided for an extension of less than a year. GOP hardliners want a short fuse so they can come back and demand more concessions before the next election.
Rep. Gaetz predicts any debt ceiling deal will pass with bipartisan support from moderates
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a GOP hardliner who has criticized McCarthy, predicted today that a bipartisan debt ceiling bill would pass with about 80 to 100 Democratic votes and about 140 to 160 Republican votes.
He said “the team,” a progressive group of lawmakers, and the House Freedom Caucus would likely oppose any bipartisan deal, referring to a group of progressive Democrats and the House’s staunchest conservatives. During a Twitter Spaces event, Gaetz predicted that any deal would “blow up” in the Senate.
Gaetz added that he saw “no serious threat” to McCarthy’s presidency in the debt ceiling negotiations. Gaetz was part of a coalition of Republicans who initially opposed McCarthy’s presidency, forcing him to make concessions that facilitated his ousting from that role.
McCarthy says negotiators have made ‘progress’ but won’t commit to deal today
McCarthy said negotiators made “progress” late yesterday night, but his conference wanted to “change the trajectory” of government spending to reduce the federal debt.
Arriving at the Capitol today, McCarthy said he met this morning with Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a key GOP negotiator. He said the staff “made some progress last night” but “we need to make more progress now”.
Asked if negotiators would reach a deal today, McCarthy said he would “work as hard as possible” but any deal had to be “worthy of the American people”.
The speaker said the debt ceiling negotiations “come down to one thing”.
“It was about spending,” he said, criticizing Democrats for borrowing money from other countries and opposing adding work requirements for people receiving government assistance.
Sources: Negotiators report talks stalled on work demands
A person who spoke to negotiators on Friday morning said they seemed “cautiously optimistic” about a debt deal, but both sides remained clinging to GOP demands for tougher work demands and a few other issues.
A second source familiar with the talks confirmed that both sides remain on the issue of work demands and that the White House opposes policies that it says will ‘drive Americans into poverty or take their health care away from them’. “.
Time is running out quickly to strike a deal, draft legislation, and pass it in the House and Senate before the default June 1 deadline. But the first source, a Republican, said he believed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would be able to find a way to extend that June 1 deadline.
“I think she’s going to come forward and say we can prioritize payments,” the person said. “That doesn’t mean the markets won’t react unfavorably, it’s risky.”
Debt ceiling talks ‘close’ but ‘not there yet’, source says
Negotiations on whether to raise the debt ceiling are “close but not there yet,” according to a Democratic source familiar with the status of the talks.
The broad parameters of a deal are “getting closer,” the source said, but the White House and congressional Republicans have yet to work out the details of a deal.
The source said they hope there will be agreement language over the long weekend, but any agreement is still subject to negotiation.
Debt ceiling agreement forecast: maybe today
Everyone in Washington keeps trying to figure out if today will be the day.
A Democrat familiar with negotiations offered this take: ‘I don’t think it will be today but could be’
Stock futures rise ahead of Friday’s market open
Stock futures rose slightly on Friday as investors watched for signs of progress in debt ceiling negotiations, CNBC reported.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 51 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2%. Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 0.4%.
Washington is also watching Wall Street. A market drop, some DC insiders have speculated, could be the pressure needed to push a deal across the finish line.
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