U.S. Debt Limit Talks Break Up Anew On GOP Demand For Spending Cuts

Debt limit talks broke up late Friday at the US Capitol shortly after resuming, hours after Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said it's time to “pause” negotiations, and the White House acknowledged there are “serious differences," Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri and Zeke Miller reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The president’s team is working towards a “reasonable bipartisan solution” that can pass the House and the Senate.

President Joe Biden’s administration is reaching for a deal with Republicans led by McCarthy as the nation faces a deadline as soon as June 1 to raise the country's borrowing borrowing limit, now at $31 trillion, to keep paying the nation’s bills and avoid a default that would send shockwaves through the global economy.

Republicans are insisting on steep spending cuts, while Biden's team has tried to limit their impact.

Republicans want to extract steep spending cuts, arguing the nation's deficit spending needs to get under control, rolling back spending to fiscal 2022 levels and restricting future growth.

But Biden's team is countering that the caps Republicans proposed in their House-passed bill would amount to 30% reductions in some programs if Defense and veterans are spared.

The biggest impasse was over the fiscal 2024 top-line budget amount. Democrats oppose the steep reductions Republicans have put on the table as harmful to Americans and would actually bloat the deficit.

The president’s team is working towards a “reasonable bipartisan solution” that can pass the House and the Senate, Stan Choe, Seung Min Kim, Stephen Groves, and Mary Clare Jalonick also reported for AP.

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