Top Republicans call for Biden to negotiate debt ceiling bill

Two top congressional Republicans on Sunday called on President Biden to act in order to avert a looming federal debt crisis.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise urged Biden to sit at the negotiating table with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as Majority Whip Tom Emmer said the US would not default on its debt — as long as the Senate and White House “recognize the gravity of the problem.”

“We just passed a bill through the House. And we’ve been very vocal. It’s been over two months since President Biden has sat down with Speaker McCarthy to have negotiations. President Biden is clearly trying to run out the clock and create a debt crisis. That’s irresponsible,” Scalise said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The GOP-led House passed a bill Thursday that would prevent the country from defaulting on its $31 trillion deficit next month by raising the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for large spending cuts.

The proposal was said to be dead on arrival both in the Democrat-controlled Senate and on the president’s desk, as Democrats seek a no-strings-attached raising of the debt ceiling.

“As we’re addressing the debt limit, we also have to address the [spending] problem that got us here,” Scalise said.

“It’s time now for the president to get in this game, get off the sidelines and let’s start negotiating and figuring this out — not in June when we get into the midnight hour, but today. We have a lot of time to get this done,” the Louisiana Republican added.

Emmer, the House’s third most powerful Republican, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that a market-shocking default could only be avoided if “our president and the Schumer senate recognize the gravity of the problem.”

The Minnesota lawmaker argued that his legislative body had already done their part in keeping the country solvent by passing the measure.

“We have passed a debt ceiling solution,” Emmer said. “We will not, House Republicans will not allow America to default on its debt, we showed that last week. The solution is in the Senate right now.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called the measure a “ransom note forced on us by the hard right,” filled with “steep cuts to education, law enforcement, veterans care and border security,” with the New York Democrat saying he may not even bring it to a vote.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday said Biden was “not negotiating” on whether the US would raise the debt limit and pay its bills.

“House Republicans are holding our economy hostage and threatening default,” she said, adding that the US is not a “deadbeat nation.”

The White House has indicated it would discuss spending in a separate bill.

With Post wires