White House says debt negotiations with Republicans ‘productive’

Washington, May 25 (AFP/APP): The White House on Thursday called the latest negotiations with Republicans on avoiding a US debt default “productive.”

The upbeat assessment came just a week before the estimated “X date” when the government will run out of money if Republicans controlling the House of Representatives do not agree to authorizing more borrowing.

“The team has had productive discussions,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “Clearly that means there continues to be a path forward.”

Jean-Pierre said the latest round of talks was held virtually earlier Thursday. She gave no details of what the two sides were crafting in an attempt to get bipartisan support in the nearly evenly split Congress.

“Both sides will have to understand that neither side is going to get everything that they want,” she said.

Republicans are pushing for huge spending cuts as a condition for extending the US debt ceiling. Biden has rejected that and accused the Republicans of taking the world’s biggest economy hostage by pushing it toward the brink of a debt default.

“Default is not an option,” Jean-Pierre said, warning that the shock from a debt default could lead to the loss of eight million jobs and “devastate retirement accounts.”

Pressed on whether President Joe Biden is preparing an emergency plan B, if the talks fail to reach a compromise, she said “the only option right now is for… Congress to do their jobs.”