President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are due to meet Monday to negotiate a debt ceiling.
On Sunday night, party officials gathered at McCarthy’s office on Capitol Hill for talks that lasted about two and a half hours.
Earlier today, McCarthy said he had a “productive” conversation with Biden.
Biden also spoke about the conversation in an upbeat tone, telling reporters that “everything went well.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” he said upon returning to the White House after a three-day meeting with G-7 leaders in Japan.
Republicans are pushing for drastic spending cuts — except for defense spending, where they want more — in exchange for backing an increase in the government’s borrowing limit.
Democrats want to keep spending at current year levels, while Republicans want to return to 2022 levels. The plan, passed by the House of Representatives last month, calls for an 8% reduction of a wide range government spending next year.
Biden said he would consider spending cuts as well as tax adjustments, but he called the latest Republican proposal “unacceptable.”
“A lot of what they’ve already offered, frankly, is just unacceptable,” Biden said in Japan. “It’s time for Republicans to recognize that a bipartisan deal cannot be made on their party’s terms alone. They must also take steps (towards).
“They know exactly our position, they know exactly what could be productive. That means, yes, both sides have to compromise,” McCarthy said.
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