Debt ceiling crisis: Democrats prepare Plan B as time to avoid defaults disappear – live | american news

The White House just announced it Joe Biden will speak at 10:45 a.m. ET “on preventing a first sovereign default”.

The speech was not previously planned. The president still plans to begin his trip to Japan later this morning as part of a trip that was cut short so he could return to Washington to address the debt limit.

We’ll cover the speech on this blog as it happens.

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives said the party is moving ahead with a parliamentary tactic that could force a vote on raising the debt ceiling if negotiations between Joe Biden and speakers Kevin McCarthy fail.

In another letter democratsHouse Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffriesencouraged his legislators to support a discharge application filed by Brendan Boyle, the ranking member of the budget committee. The unusual maneuver bypasses normal committee processes by bringing the legislation directly to the floor, but is time-consuming and faces uncertain prospects for success.

“In the coming weeks, at the reckless urging of former President Trump, we are confronting the possibility that right-wing extremists will intentionally plunge our country into a default crisis. Coming out of the White House meeting, I am hopeful that there is a real path to finding a acceptable, bipartisan resolution that prevents a default,” wrote Jeffries, who attended the meeting yesterday where Biden and McCarthy agreed to appoint deputies to negotiate a deal.

“However, given the looming June 1st deadline and the urgency of the moment, it is important that all legislative options are pursued in the event that no agreement is reached. Consequently, later this morning, Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle will submit a discharge application for to provide a vehicle that may be necessary to protect the full faith and credit of the United States, he continued, asking all Democrats to sign the petition today.

One more hint Joe Bidens newfound seriousness over the debt limit negotiations emerged yesterday, shortly before his meeting with the Republican Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders. The giveaway was an unnamed administration official telling reporters that Biden would cancel his trip to Asia and return to Washington and work on a deal — which the White House later confirmed would indeed happen, shortly after the president reversed his policy of not negotiating the debt. cap and appointed deputies to sit down with the Republicans.

While Biden will still travel to Japan to meet with G7 leaders and the country’s prime minister, he has canceled visits to two other countries that were intended to bolster Washington’s and its allies’ leverage against China. Biden will no longer visit Australia and attend a meeting of nations of the Quad, a group formed to resist Beijing’s influence. Nor will he make the first-ever visit by an American president to Papua New Guinea, a stop seen as intended to bring the country under the wing of the United States.

From Australia, The Guardian’s Daniel Hurst reports that by canceling his visits to the two countries, Biden has dealt a blow to US diplomacy in Asia:

The Chinese government is probably the biggest winner from Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, which forced the cancellation of the Quad summit in Sydney.

Chinese state media won’t have to muster much creative energy to weave together some of Beijing’s preferred narratives: that the US is plagued by increasingly serious domestic upheaval and is an unreliable partner, quickly leaving allies high and dry.

To make matters worse for US standing in the region, Biden’s planned visit to PNG on Monday had been trumpeted as a clear statement of intent about his commitment to the Pacific amid the growing competition for influence with China.

You can read the rest of his story below:

Good morning, American Politics Blog readers. Joe Biden spent weeks refusing to negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling, even though the party gave no basis on the issue and the June 1 deadline for a potential US government default grew closer.

Yesterday the President met the Speaker of the Parliament, Kevin McCarthyand the two men agreed to appoint deputies to hash out a bipartisan measure that will likely include some policy concessions demanded of Democrats by conservatives and also raise the border.

In a sign of how seriously he is taking the deadline, Biden canceled the trip to Asia he will begin today, scrapping a stop in Australia and the first visit to Papua New Guinea by a US president. And while the government estimates it will need a raise approved by early June to avoid missing bond and wage payments for the first time in history, lawmakers have an even tighter deadline.

Congress only works on certain days, and McCarthy has estimated that a framework must be approved by the end of this week for legislation to be approved by both the House and Senate.

Here’s a look at what we expect to happen today:

• Biden departs Washington DC for Japan, where he will meet the Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and attend a summit of G7 leaders.

• McCarthy and the top Republican in the Senate Mitch McConnell will brief reporters at the Capitol at 11:15 a.m. ET.

• White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will answer questions from reporters as Air Force One heads to Japan. She will be joined by the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.