Debt Limit Talks Resume After G.O.P. Briefly Declares a ‘Pause’
Negotiations between top White House and Republican congressional officials over a deal to raise the debt limit resumed on Friday just hours after House G.O.P. leaders said it was time to “press pause,” complaining that President Biden’s team was being unreasonable and that no progress could be made.
The abrupt turnabout reflected the unwieldy state of negotiations over a bipartisan deal to avert a debt default that could occur as soon as June 1.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday evening on Fox Business that Republicans would return to the negotiating table and that bipartisan talks at the Capitol would continue into the night.
“We’ll be back in the room tonight,” Mr. McCarthy said. “But it’s very frustrating if they want to come into the room and think we’re going to spend more money next year than we did this year. That’s not right, and that’s not going to happen.”
Hours earlier, Mr. McCarthy and one of his top advisers declared that they were halting negotiations, saying that White House officials were refusing to budge on spending cuts. “We’ve got to get movement by the White House, and we don’t have any movement,” Mr. McCarthy said.
Adding to the sense of whiplash were the speaker’s comments on Thursday, in which he expressed optimism that negotiators could reach a deal in principle as early as the weekend.
Republicans hinted on Friday that a major source of their frustration was how strictly to cap federal spending. The bill that House Republicans passed last month would raise the nation’s borrowing limit into next year in exchange for freezing spending at last year’s levels for a decade — which would lead to cuts of an average of 18 percent.
The bill is a dead letter in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus declared on Thursday that Republicans should insist that it pass as is.
“No more discussion on watering it down,” the group said in a tweet. “Period.”
White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, acknowledged that there were significant differences between the parties, including around Mr. McCarthy’s stance on capping federal spending.
Former President Donald J. Trump also weighed in on Friday on Truth Social, the social media website he founded, declaring that Republicans should not make a deal on the debt ceiling unless they get everything they want.
“DO NOT FOLD!!!” he wrote.
Negotiators were at odds over a handful of issues, including the extent to which a possible deal would include tougher work requirements for social safety net programs — a proposal that has drawn a backlash from progressive Democrats — and the length of any debt-limit extension.
Conservatives in the House G.O.P. conference had grown increasingly concerned in recent days that Mr. McCarthy would agree to a deal freezing spending at current levels, rather than at last year’s levels, and would not lock in the kind of spending cuts for which they have long agitated.
Time is running out for lawmakers to strike a deal, translate it into legislation and pass it through Congress for Mr. Biden’s signature. Mr. McCarthy has promised his conference that he will give lawmakers 72 hours to read the bill before they vote on it.
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