By David Morgan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A top U.S. Senate Republican on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to accept his party’s plan to slash spending or make a counter-offer, while a key Democrat stressed the need for a “clean” debt-ceiling hike that would require Republican support to pass.
With barely a month to go before a possible catastrophic U.S. default, leaders of both parties hardened their standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, with Republicans insisting that Democrats take seriously the legislation that passed the House of Representatives along party lines last week.
“There’s a House deal on the table. The president’s got to accept that or counter-offer,” Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters in the U.S. Capitol, a week before Biden was expected to host a bipartisan meeting with party congressional leaders.
“There’s strong support for what the House is doing,” Thune added. “I think everybody wants to see us succeed, and that means getting some legitimate, meaningful reforms as part of this process.”
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer leads a 51-49 majority, but would need the support of at least nine and possibly more Republicans to pass a bill lifting the debt ceiling without conditions. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday said his caucus was preparing a possible way to maneuver around Republican opposition, but that tactic could work only if the Senate passed a bill of its own.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Congress on Monday that the U.S. government will be unable to meet all its obligations “potentially as early as June 1” unless lawmakers act on the debt ceiling.
Soon afterward, Biden invited Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Schumer, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Jeffries to a White House meeting on May 9.
Schumer then began navigating a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2024 without conditions through the Senate, while the White House said Biden would “stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions.”
In a speech to the Senate, Schumer said, “our position remains the same. Both parties can do what we have done in the past, the last three times default faced us. Both parties should pass a clean, bipartisan bill to avoid default.”
Asked about his call with Biden, McConnell told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Monday: “We had a good conversation this afternoon, and I’m sure we’ll be speaking again.”
The failure of Congress to act on the debt ceiling would result in a catastrophic first-ever U.S. default that could cripple the nation’s economy and unsettle world global financial markets.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Katharine Jackson in WashingtonEditing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis)
