Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s negotiators left a meeting with Biden administration officials Friday because “it’s just not productive,” said Rep. Garret Graves, R-La.,
Republican negotiators tasked with cutting a deal with the White House to avoid a potentially disastrous debt default at the end of the month said Friday they’d paused talks with the Biden administration because they’re “not productive.”
“We decided to press pause because it’s just not productive,” said one of the negotiators, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La.
He declined to comment on details of the negotiations, but said the administration was being “unreasonable.”
“Until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, then we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves,” he said, maintaining the House had done its part by passing a bill to raise the debt ceiling. That bill includes major spending cuts that are dead on arrival with Senate Democrats.
“Avoiding default should not be contingent on passing the GOP’s hard right partisan agenda,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier this week.
Congress must act in the coming weeks or the U.S. could breach the debt ceiling as soon as June 1, the Treasury Department has warned.
Asked if talks would resume later Friday or on Saturday, Graves said, “I don’t know.”
A White House spokesperson said Friday that “A responsible, bipartisan budget agreement remains possible if both sides negotiate in good faith and recognize that neither side will get everything it wants.”
“There are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult,” the spokesperson added. “The president’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had sounded optimistic on Thursday that the two sides would be able to reach a deal.
“We haven’t agreed to anything yet, but I see the path that we could come to an agreement,” he said.