Globe-trotting Biden will STILL go to Japan next week but will NOT negotiate over debt limit

The White House said on Friday that talks with Republicans amid the looming debt crisis have been “productive” — and that the decision to postpone a scheduled Friday meeting was mutual.

The move to kick for a few days was “decidedly on all principles,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the White House — in a briefing where she reassured the media that President Biden was plan is to leave for Japan halfway through the US. week as planned despite that drama that has the potential to rock markets or even default the US.

“They will continue to meet today and over the weekend,” she said of staff, adding that the talks “have been productive,” despite no public signs of agreement.

Nevertheless, Biden stands by his core position and refuses to negotiate raising the debt limit to meet US borrowing obligations.

“We are not going to negotiate the debt limit,” she said. She characterized the conversations as one about the budget and the credit process as part of a return to “ordinary order.”

She said three-quarters of the leaders present said the nation should avoid a default. “I’ll let you guess who was the fourth who didn’t say that,” she said in a dig at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who took part in talks with Biden, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer early this week.

Jean-Pierre underlined that Biden planned to visit Japan next week as planned, days after the president himself said it was “possible” he would have to postpone or cancel the trip depending on the “state of affairs” in the conversations.

She said she had spoken with Biden about the upcoming G7 in Hiroshima.

“He just wanted to let you all know he expects to go. I’ll leave it there,” she said.

“What I can say is that the president wants him for you all to understand and know and wants me to communicate that he is expected to leave next Wednesday.”

Her comments come after a scheduled meeting at the White House between Biden, speaker Kevin McCarthy and the other congressional leaders was suddenly postponed as the US hurriedly defaults on its debts.

The meeting will now take place next week as staff from the two sides continue to meet to try to broker a deal that will allow the country to meet its obligations on its $31 trillion debt.

The postponement follows a meeting at the White House this week where the two sides announced no new agreements except to continue talks.

The Treasury Department estimates that the United States will hit its debt ceiling in early June. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office gives some breathing room, perhaps until mid-June.

Both chambers of Congress are expected to be out of session on Friday.

McCarthy noted that the clock is ticking.

“There are only 15 days left. How is the president dealing with this? Just the way he handled the border. He ignores it and hopes it goes away,” the speaker said on Capitol Hill Thursday.

“They have no plan, no proposed savings, and no idea. Apparently, President Biden does not want to negotiate. He wants to default. Mr. President, my message is very simple. Don’t miss another deadline like you just missed for Title 42. Our country can’t afford it,” he added.

The president took more shots at McCarthy and House Republicans in the White House at an event where he praised his administration’s environmental achievements — including unilateral actions such as declaring national monuments to protect federal lands and an EPA decision to create an Alaskan mine in Bristol Bay.

This time, he said the budget approved by the House, which includes a one-year extension of the debt limit, would lead to a 22 percent cut in programs that harm the environment.

He said it would reduce funding for wetlands, firefighters and park rangers.

“Folks, we can’t let that happen,” he said.

On Tuesday, Biden received the four congressional leaders — McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — at the White House for a meeting, in which small progress was made.

For months, the president has said he wanted Congress to pass a “clean” debt ceiling bill.

Instead, House Republicans passed a bill late last month that would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over time.

That bill is dead on arrival in the Senate in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

White House officials acknowledged to Reuters that they must accept some cuts or strict caps on future spending if they want to close a deal, but insisted they must keep Biden’s signature climate legislation passed last year along party lines.

But Republicans did not sound optimistic after meeting with Biden on Tuesday.

“Everyone in this meeting repeated the positions they were in. I didn’t see any new movement,” McCarthy said.

Asked if the leaders were any closer to a deal, McCarthy said, “Well, we’ve met. So that’s closer.’

The speaker said he pressured Biden “several times” whether he would agree to any cuts or whether there were areas for agreement, but Biden had no specific proposals.

“I passed a bill – what else do I need to do?” he said.

But Schumer patted McCarthy for not ruling out default, regardless of the circumstances.

“We have explicitly asked speaker McCarthy to remove default from the table. He refused,” the Democratic leader told the press.

Biden, meanwhile, said that “default is not an option” and said he was considering using the 14th Amendment to lift the debt ceiling.

Biden also agreed to view COVID funding as an area in the budget where he would accept cuts — one of the proposals McCarthy put forward after his meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon.

“I trust Kevin will try to do what he says,” Biden said when asked if he trusted McCarthy. “I don’t know how much leeway Kevin McCarthy thinks he has, when in fact – and I’m not a smartass when I say this – it took 15 votes to win the speakership.”

“And apparently he had to make serious concessions to get it from the most extreme elements of his party,” Biden continued. ‘I just do not know.’

The 14th Amendment says, “The validity of the national debt, permitted by law…shall not be questioned.”

Some legal scholars argue that this gives the Treasury Department the ability to continue borrowing money above the current $31.4 trillion debt limit, which would require congressional approval to raise or lift.

The controversial idea builds on Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, arguing that it would be unconstitutional for the US to withhold payments even if the debt limit is not increased, effectively challenging the debt limit on legal grounds.