The White House indicated earlier today that President Biden may shorten his Asian tour in the midst of negotiations with Republican leaders to avoid a US default.
US President Joe Biden will cut short a tour of Asia this week and return to Washington for crucial negotiations with Republicans to avert a potentially catastrophic debt default, two sources familiar with his program told AFP.
Biden canceled stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea, but still plans to attend the G7 summit in Japan, according to the two sources, who are not authorized to speak publicly.
Before that, the White House indicated that President Biden may shorten his Asian tour in the midst of negotiations with Republican leaders to avoid a US default.
Biden heads Wednesday to Japan to participate in a summit hosted by Hiroshima, but the White House announced that he is in the process of conducting a re-evaluation of his tour program in Asia after the G-7 summit.
On Tuesday, Biden met with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for talks about raising the US public debt ceiling to prevent the government from defaulting.
After the meeting, McCarthy said that resolving the public debt crisis “still requires” a lot of work “, especially since the margin for reaching an agreement has become narrow.
“We have a lot of work to do in a short period of time,” McCarthy told reporters, following talks he held at the White House with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders.
For his part, the president expressed “optimism” after the talks with the Republican leaders.
And Biden holds the Republicans responsible for the increase in debt.
On Tuesday evening, he tweeted, “My predecessor (Donald Trump)’s tax cuts for the super-wealthy added $2 trillion to America’s debt. Now House Republicans are using default risk to hold our economy hostage and get aid to the rich. It’s clear to those who want to prioritize.” “.
And the US Treasury warns of “catastrophic” consequences if the US administration becomes unable to pay its bills, which will make it unable to pay the wages of federal employees, which would lead to a significant increase in interest rates, with the impact that could be associated with companies. and mortgage holders.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden will certainly attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, but the rest of the tour’s stops are uncertain.
Kirby stressed that Biden is able to carry out several tasks at the same time.
Kirby added, “He can go abroad” and “work with congressional leaders to do the right thing, raise the public debt ceiling and avoid default in order to preserve the credibility of the United States here and abroad.”
