WASHINGTON — Negotiators resumed talks Friday night to avert a catastrophic U.S. default hours after a Republican walk-out punctured optimism that a debt-limit deal was near and drove down stocks.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the discussions would restart following a pause of several hours earlier in the day. White House advisers hand-picked by President Joe Biden returned to the Capitol shortly after.
“It’s true that we took a pause because of the frustration that this White House will not acknowledge that they’re spending too much,” McCarthy said in an interview with Fox Business. “We’ll be back in the room tonight.”
Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Steve Ricchetti, a senior Biden adviser, arrived back at the Capitol minutes after McCarthy spoke. They didn’t comment as they entered a negotiating room where Republican Reps. Patrick McHenry, Garret Graves and McCarthy Chief of Staff Dan Meyer awaited, and the door slammed shut.
The swift resumption of talks on Friday highlighted the whipsaw battle between Republicans and the White House over spending cuts, which GOP lawmakers demand as the price for raising the federal borrowing limit.
Just a day ago, McCarthy had said that he expected a deal as soon as this weekend and began laying the groundwork for votes in the House next week. But then GOP negotiators walked out of talks with White House officials.
McCarthy said an increase in spending sought by the White House is “not going to happen” and said it’s been frustrating the White House continues to push for more spending in the talks.
While walking to the ornate meeting room where the talks Friday night were being held, McHenry declined to, in his word, “characterize” the issue or issues that had caused the temporary halt.
“The goal is to get a bill that can pass the House of Representatives and the Senate, and get signed by the president,” McHenry said.
As of early Friday evening, McHenry said of the talks, “nothing’s been agreed to.”
Breakdowns aren’t unusual in high-stakes Washington negotiations, especially as deadlines near and hard choices come into sharper focus. Biden and McCarthy confront frenetic campaigns by more ideological members of their parties alarmed that their priorities will be sacrificed to reach a compromise.
Tobin Marcus at Evercore ISI wrote to clients on Thursday saying, “We caution investors not to overestimate how quick or smooth the path to the finish line will be.”
McCarthy’s uncharacteristically upbeat comments Thursday on the prospects for an agreement on the U.S. borrowing limit sent stocks upward, with the S&P 500 hitting a nine-month high, closing just shy of 4,200. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has signaled a default could become a risk as soon as June 1.
But news of the breakdown on Friday triggered a slump in stocks, with the S&P 500 at one point losing almost 0.8% from its high of Friday’s session, though the decline moderated later. The index closed down 0.1%. Yields on U.S. Treasury bills that mature in early June resumed climbing Friday, showcasing concerns about potential payment-default risks.
There was not a dramatic flare-up in the room before the Republicans stormed out Friday morning, according to one person familiar with the negotiations. Another person familiar with the talks said it wasn’t a specific issue but ranged broadly across GOP budget-cutting demands.
White House aides told Republicans that just as there were proposals that the House speaker had explained would prompt too many members of his party to defect – like raising additional revenues through closing tax loopholes – there were policies the GOP side was pursuing that would lead to mass Democratic defections.
Minutes after the Republican negotiators walked out of the talks, former President Donald Trump posted a social media statement saying GOP lawmakers shouldn’t make a deal unless they get “everything they want” and added “including the ‘kitchen sink.’”
The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Thursday called for an end to bipartisan debt-limit talks, insisting instead that the Senate vote on the House Republican bill passed in April with sharp spending cuts across the board. Progressive Democrats mounted a fervent campaign opposing potential concessions to Republicans, including expanded work requirements to be applied to food stamps, welfare and Medicaid.
Sixty-six progressive House Democrats on Friday urged Biden in a letter not to compromise with Republicans on expanded work requirements or cuts to safety-net and climate spending and instead invoke an untested interpretation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to override the debt limit.
(Jarrell Dillard contributed to this report.)
