President Joe Biden issued a terse, three-sentence statement late Monday evening following the conclusion of his talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on how to raise the debt ceiling.
The discussion failed to yield a final agreement but both sides said it was “productive.”
“I just concluded a productive meeting with Speaker McCarthy about the need to prevent default and avoid a catastrophe for our economy. We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement,” Biden said in a statement.
“While there are areas of disagreement, the Speaker and I, and his lead negotiators Chairman McHenry and Congressman Graves, and our staffs will continue to discuss the path forward,” he added.
The White House released Biden’s statement after McCarthy briefed reporters at the White House and in a separate briefing at the Capitol minutes later.
McCarthy also told reporters that the Monday evening meeting was “productive” even though there was no “progress” yet.
He said staff would continue to meet and he expected to be in touch with Biden every day – there are just 10 days left before the government is expected to have to borrow more money in order to pay its current obligations.
Negotiators for both McCarthy, R-Calif., and Biden have been meeting for more than a week, and met again for about two and a half hours on Sunday night, just two days after Republicans called for a “pause” in the talks because no progress was being made.
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