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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy will deliver a speech on the debt limit on Monday. His speech comes a day before President Joe Biden delivers the annual State of the Union address.
Biden and McCarthy are engaged in the early stages of what is expected to be a months-long conversation on a debt limit vote.
The nation passed its statutory limit last month, forcing Treasury Secretary Jenny Yellen take several temporary measures To prevent the government from defaulting.
If Congress doesn’t pass a bill to raise or suspend the country’s debt ceiling by early June, it could wreak economic havoc around the world.
But House Republicans say they will not vote to raise the limit without massive spending cuts in return.
“I believe you have to raise the debt ceiling, but you can’t raise the debt ceiling without changing your behavior. So it has to be both,” McCarthy said after his first meeting with Biden last week. “
However, the White House has so far refused to “negotiate” a debt ceiling increase. Instead, Biden has called for Congress to pass a so-called “clean” bill, meaning no legislative strings attached.
McCarthy recently told reporters that “that will never happen.”