A frustrated President Biden told reporters on Saturday in an attempt to calm fears of nervous allies that the White House could fail to reach a debt-restriction deal, plunging the United States and the world into an economic crisis. “Shut up,” he said.
Biden, who attended bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the ongoing G7 economic summit in Hiroshima, said, “I still believe a default can be avoided and something decent can be done.” told the media. , Japan.
“This is going in phases,” he said of talks between House Republicans and the White House hours after talks broke down so badly on Friday that dashed hopes of a smooth resolution to the budget woes.
But when an Australian reporter tried to interject a question, Mr Biden was furious.
“Shut up, do you get it?” he scolded before beginning to ramble on about the deal closing process.
“I’ve been in these negotiations before,” Mr. Biden said.
“What happens is the first meeting wasn’t very progressive. The second one was. The third one was. And what happens is the carriers Go back to the principal and say, “Here’s what we’re thinking.” And people withdrew their new claims. “
But back in Washington, negotiators remained in a stalemate and no negotiations took place on Saturday.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy blamed “Bernie Sanders and the socialist faction” in the Democratic Party for the deadlock, and said the deadlock would continue until Biden returned from Japan.
“Unfortunately, the White House has stepped back.” McCarthy told reporters. when he left the Capitol on Saturday. “And I think Bernie Sanders and the socialist wing of his party have had a huge impact on the president … I don’t think we can move forward until the president returns home.”
White House negotiators “actually want to spend more money than we spent this year,” McCarthy complained.
“We can’t do that. We all know how big this deficit is, and we all know that inflation will force us to spend less than we spent this year.”
Biden, McCarthy are days away from a deal to raise the debt ceiling Government borrowing limits set by Congress must not be exceeded before default can have disastrous consequences.
The Treasury Department has warned that the funds to pay its current $31 trillion debt will run out on June 1.
House Republicans passed legislation last month that would allow the government to borrow an additional $1.5 trillion in exchange for drastic spending cuts and a 10-year cap on federal budget increases.
Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor, has admitted that the U.S. debt problem is “a subject of interest” in summits between the president and world leaders.
“This is not alarming,” Sullivan said at a news conference on Saturday. “What I want to say is that countries have a strong interest in what the stories that matter are. was made.”
