The White House on Thursday pressed House Republicans to come to a ‘reasonable agreement’ on the budget – and defended President Joe Biden‘s expected pending travel plans even with a potential U.S. default just days away.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked Biden’s plans and his congressional counterparts Thursday, with more talk of ‘progress’ but no indications yet that there is a deal at hand that could avoid a default as soon as June 1.
‘What I can say is that the President can deal with this issue anywhere he is,’ she said.
It is an argument that White House has made in the past, since the president travels with a bevy of aides and communications equipment. But Biden elected to cut short his planned trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea last week amid the need to negotiate the impasse.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed for the second day in a row on President Joe Biden’s weekend travel plans, with no deal in hand to avert a potential government default, with the ‘X’ deadline just seven days away
Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just once this week, on Monday late afternoon after returning from Japan.
House Republican leaders announced Thursday that they were sending members home for Memorial Day – but instructed them to be prepared to D.C. on 24-hours notice in the event of a breakthrough.
Jean-Pierre’s comment came a day after she snapped a similar question on Wednesday.
‘On the debt ceiling, you used words like catastrophic and devastating today, but the president again is going to Camp David this weekend and then going to Delaware,’ a reporter asked her then. ‘If the situation is so dire, then why is the president…’ the reporter asked before Jean-Pierre cut her off.
‘I just answered that question,’ she said. ‘Do you have another one? I literally just answered that question,’ she said.
Although Biden and McCarthy met just once this week, the daily talks have been handled by two senior members of his staff and two House Republican lawmakers. McCarthy also revealed that he has spoken to former President Donald Trump about the budget in comments he characterized as brief. Trump was in town Thursday hosting the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament at his Virginia property.
President Joe Biden insisted talks with Republicans were ‘about the outlines of what the budget will look like – not about default.’ He spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 25, 2023, on his intent to nominate U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., right, to serve as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Vice President Kamala Harris listen.
‘The American people should know that we’re not taking any hostages here. Default is not an option,’ Jean-Pierre, in one of her jabs at Republicans, amid calls by some progressive Democrats for Biden to up his communications game.
Her comment came a day after she called out Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for telling Semafor his colleagues were in agreement and, ‘They don’t feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.’
The line seemed to suggest that Gaetz could be owning up to the hostage-taking – using the threat as leverage – that the White House has accused them of in the past.
Biden himself addressed the state of talks at the start of an event formally announcing his nomination of CQ Brown, Jr. to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
He said the talks were ‘about the outlines of what the budget will look like – not about default.’
Then he said he and ‘Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order. ‘
He said GOP proposals would lead to ‘huge cuts’ in teachers, police, and border patrol.
‘I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of the middle class and working class Americans,’ he said.
He cited his own proposal to cut $1 trillion in spending and making the wealthy ‘begin to pay their fair share’ – although McCarthy says his revenue proposals are not on the table.
‘I’ve made clear time and again defaulting on our national debt is not an option,’ Biden said.
House conservatives and progressives have begun to squawk about the type of deal that could emerge, with the White House saying it must pass on a bipartisan basis.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
