President Joe Biden will press House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to definitively rule out the possibility that House Republicans will let the United States default on its sovereign debt when the two leaders meet for the first time since the GOP took control of the House of Representatives.
The first sit-down between the president and the California Republican is set for Wednesday, just weeks after Mr McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel with the support of far-right extremist members of the GOP caucus, in part by committing to weaponise a century-old law capping the total amount of bonds the US can have outstanding. Republicans are attempting to use the debt limit as a way to force the Biden administration to put Democratic programs and priorities on the chopping block.
