The White House stated on Friday that there are “real contradictions” in the ongoing talks to avoid defaulted US debt payments.
The move comes as President Joe Biden is in Japan for the G7 summit. Biden is canceling a planned continuation of the trip after the meeting to return to Washington DC and the negotiations.
But even leading Republicans take a very dim view of attempts to find a compromise between the Republicans who control the House of Representatives and the Democrats who hold power in the Senate and the White House.
Time for a break
Republican Congressman Garret Graves says it’s time to pause negotiations on the US debt ceiling.
– It is time to press the pause button because the talks are simply going nowhere, he told reporters in Washington.
As recently as Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy believed a deal could be in place this week. But according to Graves, the negotiations between Democrats and Republicans have been “unreasonable” and it is, according to him, unclear when they can resume again.
Warning of consequences
The US Congress must decide to raise the debt ceiling in order to be able to borrow more money and thus be able to pay amortizations and write-offs of loans.
The political process of raising the debt ceiling returns at regular intervals, but so far the US has avoided defaulting on debt payments.
The US Treasury Department has warned of “catastrophic” consequences if the US could not pay its bills, which would, among other things, make the country unable to pay salaries to public employees and likely trigger a rise in interest rates – which would also shake financial markets around the world.