Policy- Biden is set to meet with top lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss a potential debt ceiling agreement.
- Progressive lawmakers told Axios that Biden should not compromise in an agreement.
Progressive lawmakers want to make sure President Joe Biden does not cave on Democratic priorities to reach a debt ceiling agreement.
On Tuesday afternoon, the president is set to meet with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and other top congressional lawmakers to attempt to make progress toward a debt ceiling agreement. Up until this point, both sides of the aisle have been unable to find common ground on the best approach to avoid a default. McCarthy passed a bill in the House that would raise the debt ceiling through March of next year, and it was accompanied by over $4.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Biden, meanwhile, has been adamant that he will not accept a debt ceiling deal that includes spending cuts — leaving Congress in a stalemate with a default looming as soon as June 1. Even so, some progressive lawmakers have warned the president that he should not bend on Democratic priorities to raise the debt ceiling.
The White House can "expect pushback on nearly any significant concession. This is not an appropriate vehicle ... I don't think we should normalize such destructive tactics," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Axios.
"It's profoundly destructive and it also threatens to weaken the president," Ocasio-Cortez said.
Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Pramila Jayapal also told Axios that "if they give on these core Democratic values, there will be a huge backlash."
Multiple reports have suggested that the White House was considering compromising on rescinding unspent pandemic funding and energy permitting reform in a debt ceiling deal. Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday that McCarthy said he would not accept a deal that did not include strengthened work requirements on welfare programs like SNAP, though, even as Biden suggested on Twitter on Monday he would not accept legislation including that provision.
"The House Republican wish list would put a million older adults at risk of losing their food assistance and going hungry," Biden wrote. "Rather than push Americans into poverty, we should reduce the deficit by making sure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes."
Still, it's unclear what Biden will end up accepting — or compromising on — to keep the US out of default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reminded McCarthy in a letter on Monday that he is running out of time to reach an agreement with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling, and many Democrats want to ensure that even under this time crunch, Biden doesn't compromise.
"Congressional Republicans are ready to drive our economy off a cliff to fulfill their dream of erasing America's safety net," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "Kevin McCarthy is the only one who won't take default off the table. Democrats – including President Biden – have been clear: these dangerous proposals are not going anywhere. We will not create a red tape maze that has been a complete failure every time it has been tried."