Talks between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on cutting spending and raising the debt limit turned serious Tuesday when President Biden cut short a foreign trip and agreed to exclude Senate Democrats from the negotiating table.
Mr. Biden is set to depart Wednesday for the Pacific but shortened his trip so he can return to Washington earlier than planned. The president will meet with other leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in Japan this weekend, but he canceled a leg of the trip that was to take him to Australia and Papua New Guinea early next week.
Administration officials announced that the president will return to Washington on Monday after the G-7 summit wraps up.
At a White House reception, Mr. Biden said he had “another good, productive meeting with our congressional leadership” on raising the national debt limit.
“There is still work to do, but I made it clear to the speaker and others” that talks will continue and staff will meet daily, the president said.
Regarding the change in his travel plans, Mr. Biden said “the nature of the presidency is addressing many critical matters all at once.”
The White House said the new schedule would give Mr. Biden time “to ensure Congress takes action” to raise the debt limit by June 1.
“The president has made clear that members of Congress from both parties and chambers must come together to prevent default, as they have 78 times before,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “The president and his team will continue to work with congressional leadership to deliver a budget agreement that can reach the president’s desk.”
Outside of truncating his foreign travel, Mr. Biden agreed to cut other congressional leaders out of the debt limit negotiations and deal directly with the speaker.
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said after a White House meeting with Mr. Biden on Tuesday that the decision was a sign of progress.
“The structure of how we negotiate has improved, so it now gives you a better opportunity, even though we only have a few days to get it done,” said Mr. McCarthy. “Had we done this 97 days ago, we’d have already passed a bill.”
The decision to narrow the negotiating table was made after administration officials met with top staffers for congressional leaders in recent days. Although the talks have broached the topic of spending cuts, no breakthrough has emerged.
Allies of Mr. McCarthy said that part of the obstacle in forging a deal was too many voices at the negotiating table. Apart from White House officials and Mr. McCarthy’s lieutenants, also privy to the talks have been staffers of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Do you think [President Trump] wanted to negotiate with Speaker Pelosi in 2019?” said Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “Of course not. [He had] no choice.”
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, both New York Democrats, said the decision to step back from the talks was made after they secured an agreement from House Republicans that only a bipartisan measure could solve the looming debt limit crisis.
“We all agree that the only path forward is to reach a bipartisan agreement, anchored in common ground,” said Mr. Jeffries. “We all agreed that default is not an acceptable option and must be avoided.”
House Republicans say any deal to hike the debt ceiling should include at least $130 billion in immediate spending cuts. Mr. McCarthy has said half of that money can be made up by rescinding more than $60 billion in unspent pandemic relief.
Democrats are open to the clawback, provided it doesn’t impact money already promised to state and local governments.
Republicans also want to expand work requirements for welfare recipients, cap future federal spending and streamline the permitting process for energy projects. They also want to cancel more than $200 billion in green energy tax credits that Democrats passed last year as part of Mr. Biden‘s signature climate law. Mr. Biden has signaled that the latter demand is a non-starter.
The White House appears open to some of the Republicans’ other demands. Negotiators are working to see whether they can combine parts of an energy proposal passed by House Republicans this year with a permitting overhaul authored last year by Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, that Mr. Biden endorsed.
Capping the growth of federal spending has broad division. Republicans want to cap spending growth at 1% for the next decade, and Democrats are pushing for only a two-year agreement.
By far the biggest sticking point is expanding work requirements for welfare.
Mr. Biden opened the door over the weekend to accept expanded work requirements, provided they do not cover Medicaid. After opposition from Democrats, the president backtracked Monday by saying he opposed increasing work requirements on elderly food stamp recipients.
“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,” Mr. Biden said.
For a debt limit deal to succeed, Mr. McCarthy said, all work requirements for all programs have to be on the table.
House Republicans are pushing requirements for at least 20 hours of work per week to qualify for Medicaid, food stamps and direct cash payments. They also want to increase the age limit for work requirements from 49 to 55.
“Remember what we’re talking about — able-bodied people without dependents,” said Mr. McCarthy. “It’s 20 hours per week. You [can] go to school or whatever else. … Work requirements help people get a job.”
Democrats say expanding work requirements for food stamps and Medicaid is a red line, given that the U.S. is just coming out of a pandemic emergency and is plagued by inflation.
“We must reject any bill that would increase poverty and take health care away from millions of Americans,” said Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Medicaid would save $120 billion over the next decade if recipients were required to work at least 20 hours per week. The savings would come at the expense of lost Medicaid access to 600,000 individuals over the same period.
Regarding food stamps, the CBO estimates that 275,000 people would lose monthly benefits under the proposed requirements.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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