By TN Ashok
Washington, May 17: With just 16 days to go for June one, when the US treasury may become bankrupt unless the debt ceiling crisis standoff between White House and the House of representatives is resolved , President Biden has trimmed his Asia tour after the G7 summit in Hiroshima and Quad meet in Sydney in the hope of hammering out a solution by Sunday.
Biden has reportedly cut short the Asia trip short after Quad summit reach here as debt ceiling talks enter crunch time as Congress has to meet to ensure there is no debt default on June 01, media reports said. Australia has now cancelld the Quad summut, So did Biden his gtrip to Sydney to rush back to Wasington to stave off the debt crisis, besides Oz PM Anthony Albanese still expected both Biden and Indian PM Narendra Modi to attend other meetings in Sydney.
We’re only 16 days away from 1 June, when the US government – having hit the legal limit on how much money it can borrow months ago – is expected to exhaust its cash on hand and could default on its debt obligations, potentially causing a financial calamity, reports said.
President Joe Biden had met with top Republican and Democratic legislators in congress to close the deal to raise the debt ceiling. Now, he is cutting his trip to Asia short, so he can continue negotiations. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has signalled that the talk was promising, even though Republicans and Democrats remain “far apart” on issues. The issues being GOP wanting massive spending cuts in Bidens budget, democrats fearing such a move would jeopardise social welfare programme and senior citizen benefits, potentially hurting vote banks.
The White House said the meeting with GOP members was “productive and direct”. “The president directed staff to continue to meet daily on outstanding issues. He said that he would like to check in with leaders later this week by phone, and meet with them upon his return from overseas,” according to the White House.
The US could default on its debts by 1 June if negotiations do not conclude, and the debt ceiling is not raised, by then, the UK newspaper The Guardian noted.
“It was a positive meeting,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader. “We all agreed that default was not an option.” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that he and Jeffries were “committed” to getting a bipartisan bill done. “The bottom line is that we all came to agreement that we were going to continue discussions in the way that I believe Speaker McCarthy described, which was agreed to by all of us in the room together., the Guardian quoted them in a special dispatch.
Kevin McCarthy however felt both sides were apart from a solution to the debt crisis. However, he indicated it was possible to get a deal by the end of the week. McCarthy said Biden will expectedly appoint a person to negotiate with Republican leaders.
Biden, who was to become the first US President to set foot on Papua New Guinea for a meeting with Asian and Pacific country leaders, is skipping this lap of his tour to rush back to Washington from Sydney, the NBC quoted sources as saying.
Meanwhile , the Washington Post said the three-country trip was meant to solidify allied efforts to counter China, as well as rally support for Ukraine and for fighting the climate crisis. Biden is still expected to meet with leaders from the G7 group of the world’s richest countries while in Hiroshima, Japan