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President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed that both sides will keep negotiating on a debt limit plan to avoid default after about an hour of talks on Monday evening.
Though they didn’t reach an agreement, White House negotiators were said to be returning to Capitol Hill on Monday night to resume the discussions, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the situation.
“I just concluded a productive meeting with Speaker McCarthy about the need to prevent default and avoid a catastrophe for our economy,” Biden said in a statement. Both Biden’s and McCarthy’s lead negotiators will “continue to discuss the path forward,” he added.
Meanwhile, McCarthy told reporters that the negotiators are “going to get together, work through the night” to try to find areas of agreement, Reuters reported.
“I believe we can still get there,” he said. Still, he’s not considering the president’s suggestion to cut the deficit by increasing taxes for the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for the pharmaceutical and oil industries, he said. Rather, McCarthy is focused on reducing spending in the FY2024 federal budget.
One of the lead negotiators, Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry said the tone in the Biden-McCarthy meeting was the most positive so far.
Earlier today, Fox News reported that White House and Republican negotiators have agreed to cut unspent pandemic funding. Meanwhile, Janet Yellen struck a tone of increased urgency in getting a deal done, saying it’s “highly likely” the Treasury will run out of money in early June if the $31.4T debt limit isn’t increased or suspended soon.
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