- GOP Rep. Garret Graves told reporters that debt ceiling negotiations are on "pause."
- He said the White House is bringing "unreasonable" requests.
A catastrophic default on the nation's debt is looking even more likely now.
On Friday, Republican Rep. Garret Graves told reporters as he was exiting a meeting on the debt ceiling that negotiations are on "pause," saying the talks with the White House are "not productive" and the administration has been putting forth "unreasonable" requests.
"Unless they are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, we're not going to sit here and talk to ourselves," Graves told reporters.
A White House official said that "there are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult. The President's team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate."
This latest development has significant implications, given that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Monday that the US could default on its debt as soon as early June. It's also a major shift in the optimistic tone McCarthy had just yesterday with regards to the direction of the talks, telling reporters that "I just believe where we were a week ago and where we are today is a much better place because we've got the right people in the room discussing it in a very professional manner."
It's unclear what exactly Graves was referring to as "unreasonable," but up until this point, President Joe Biden and his administration have been clear that they will only support a clean debt ceiling increase, without any spending cuts attached. Meanwhile, McCarthy recently passed a bill in the House to raise the debt ceiling accompanied by over $4.5 trillion in spending cuts, and he has been pushing the administration to compromise by including some of those cuts in an agreement.
Some areas of compromise that have been floated are recouping unspent pandemic funds and strengthening work requirements on welfare programs, like SNAP. Progressive lawmakers have urged Biden not to cave on Democratic priorities for a debt ceiling deal — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, told Politico that McCarthy "may need many, many Democratic votes" to pass a debt ceiling bill, and Biden should use that as leverage.
Still, there's a major time crunch for Congress to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling before a default. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have been calling on Biden to prepare to invoke a clause in the 14th amendment that could declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional, allowing the president to try to bypass Congress and solve the issue on his own.
But it's unclear where the negotiations will go from here — when asked if talks will resume today, White House negotiators told reporters that they're "playing [it] by ear."
".@POTUS waited months before agreeing to negotiate with @SpeakerMcCarthy on a spending deal," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote on Twitter on Friday. "They are the only two who can reach an agreement. It is past time for the White House to get serious. Time is of the essence."