The White House could swallow a “short-term” debt ceiling extension

The White House is considering a short-term extension to lift the debt ceiling so negotiations between the Biden administration and Congressional Republicans won’t throw the country off a fiscal cliff.

That reports CNBC Friday on the administration’s thinking, citing four sources familiar with the matter.

They characterized the move as a “last resort” or a “fallback” option as Biden continues to demand that Congressional Republicans send a clean debt ceiling to his desk before June 1, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. would be lacking. its loans.

However, that’s not what the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed — lifting the debt ceiling in hefty spending cuts instead.

On Friday, Biden again chided “MAGA” Republicans for playing chicken with him, telling reporters at his meeting with the Investing in America cabinet that GOP lawmakers were responsible for creating a “manufactured crisis.”

At the meeting, Biden highlighted Friday morning’s better-than-expected jobs report.

“Today alone, they are reporting 250,000 new jobs,” Biden said. “The last thing this country needs after all we’ve been through is a manufactured crisis and that’s what this is: a manufactured crisis. That’s what it is from start to finish, it’s a manufactured crisis driven by MAGA Republicans in Congress.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs were added 253,000 in April.

“Unfortunately, our — now I won’t say Republican because I think they’re pretty evenly distributed — but the MAGA Republicans in Congress are threatening to undo all this progress by making us “default on the debt” unless we agree with their demands,” Biden said.

“The two are totally unrelated,” Biden lamented. “Whether you pay the debt or not, it has nothing to do with what your budget is.”

Biden slammed the GOP for “trying to hold the debt hostage” to usher in “draconian” and “damaging” budget cuts.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet Biden at the White House to discuss the debt ceiling and budget

He also made a mind-boggling claim about the age of the United States.

“They say we’re not going to increase the debt every president here has done for the past six million years,” Biden said. “Unless you exceed our proposed budget.”

Biden said again, “We’re not a dead-end nation, we’re paying our bills.”

He told reporters he knew many of them covered foreign policy. ‘You know that this is becoming an issue in other countries. What will the United States do? Are they really fooling around by not paying their debt?’ he mused.

Biden has a scheduled meeting Tuesday with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Biden took no questions during Friday’s meeting and so could not confirm the CNBC report on whether a short-term extension was on the table.

Instead, he teased that he was holding a “big press conference this afternoon” — in reality, that meant a sit-down interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle.