US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he was confident about reaching a deal with Republican leaders to avert a potentially catastrophic US debt default as early as June 1.
In the White House, President Biden delivered remarks on preventing a First-Ever Government Default.
“I wanted to say a word about the status of negotiations with the Congressional leaders. We had a productive meeting yesterday, and with all four leaders in the Congress. It was civil and respectful. And everyone came to the meeting, I think, in good faith,” Biden said.
“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget that America will not default.
And every leader in the room understands the consequences if we fail to pay our bills. And it would be catastrophic for t the American economy and the American people if we didn’t pay our bills,” Biden said.
“And I’m confident everyone in the room agreed that we’re going to come together because there’s no alternative.
We have to do the right thing for the country. We have to move on. And to be clear, this negotiation is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about whether or not we’re going to, in fact, pay our debts,” Biden added.
“The leaders have all agreed we will not default. Every leader has said that. And I’m proud of the progress my administration has made.
We’ve reduced the deficit in the first two years by USD 1.7 trillion in the first two years. And I proposed a budget that would reduce another USD 3 trillion over the next decade,” Biden said.
“Yesterday, we all agreed that both Speaker McCarthy and I would designate senior members that we would negotiate to give our authority to make agreements in detail on what we wanted, so we narrowed the group, we narrowed the group to meet and hammer out our differences. And we’ve done that. In fact, they met last night.
And they’re going to be meeting again today. And I’ll be in constant contact with my team while I’m at the G-7. And I’ll be in close touch with Speaker McCarthy and other leaders as well,” Biden noted.
“Now, what I have done in anticipation that we won’t get it all done until I get back is I’ve cut my trip short in order to be here for the final negotiations and sign the deal with the majority leader.
I made clear that, and I’ll say it again, America is not a deadbeat nation. We pay our bills,” Biden said.
“Our nation has never defaulted on its debt and it never will.
And we’re going to continue these discussions with Congressional leaders in the coming days until we reach an agreement. And I’ll have more to say about that on Sunday,” Biden added.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
