- ‘I thought we made progress last night. We got to make more progress now,’ McCarthy told reporters on his way into the Capitol
- The two sides still have not come to an agreement on a top line number for increasing the nation’s borrowing limit
- A source familiar said they also have not agreed on whether to extend borrowing for one or two years
President Joe Biden said he was ‘optimistic’ of a deal that could avert a U.S. default as he left Washington for Camp David hoping for a signal of progress within hours.
‘I hope we’ll have some clear evidence tonight before the clock strikes 12 that we have a deal,’ Biden told reporters as he left town at the start of the Memorial Day Weekend.
He spoke hours after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the nation would likely hit the ‘X’ default deadline June 5 unless Congress is able to act.
Biden said negotiators were ‘very close’ but declared himself ‘optimistic.’
‘I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to know tonight whether we are going to be able to have a deal,’ he said.
‘With regard to the debt limit, things are looking good,’ Biden said, despite the White House long disputing that negotiations were about raising the nation’s statutory limit, which Biden thinks Congress ought to do on a ‘clean’ basis.
The White House has been taking heat, including from Democratic House members, for Biden’s decision to leave town amid the high-stakes talks that could have the U.S. failing to make good on his debts.
He said he was flying to Camp David ‘because my granddaughter graduates on Sunday.’
Even with the high stakes global finances on the line, Biden spoke about some other logistics behind his decision. He said the Secret Service ‘is working on my house’ and there’s ‘no place to go at home for five weeks.’ He has previously spoken about bullet proof windows being installed at his Wilmington home.
Biden didn’t otherwise speak on the standoff publicly Friday, although at one of his events, where he hosted the Louisiana State University women’s basketball champs, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), one of McCarty’s top negotiators, was in attendance. Biden negotiator OMB head Shalanda Young was also there.
