The United States is facing the threat of a dangerous crisis: Biden has no time for visits

President Biden canceled a planned visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on debt relief talks as Washington faces a potentially catastrophic default abyss.

According to The Guardian, Biden is still planning to travel to Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday for a G7 summit with leaders from some of the world’s leading economies. But he canceled a planned first-ever visit by a sitting US president to Papua New Guinea and a stop in Australia to meet with other leaders of the so-called Quad.

The move comes after Biden held a new round of talks with congressional leaders at the White House in an attempt to break the stalemate – and faced criticism from his left flank over rumors of concessions to the Republicans. Although the meeting ended in less than an hour, there were expressions of cautious optimism from both sides.

Republican Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters, “I think we’ve set the stage for more conversations to continue… We have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.”

McCarthy acknowledged that the two sides are still far apart, but added: “Maybe by the end of the week a deal can be struck. It’s not that hard to come to an agreement.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “It was a good and productive meeting. Everyone agreed that a default would be the worst possible outcome – a terrible situation for America and American families.”

American leaders have just 15 days to strike a deal to raise the US government’s debt ceiling by $31.4 trillion and prevent the first default in the country’s history.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday reiterated its warning that it may not have enough money to pay all of its bills as early as June 1, triggering a default that economists say is likely to spell disaster, delighting geopolitical rivals like China. and Russia.

Officials estimate that more than 8 million Americans could lose their jobs. Millions of Social Security recipients, veterans and military families could lose their monthly payments. Vital federal services, including border control and air traffic control, could be disrupted if workers cannot receive their government paychecks.

Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, comments to The Guardian: “It would plunge many American families into an economic depression. This would lead to an economic crisis not only in the United States, but throughout the world. We need to be able to keep our promise and pay our bills, and then we can go back and obviously discuss a budget that can be agreed upon by both parties. But to hold our economy hostage on a wish list that results in economic devastation for so many of the people we represent is simply unthinkable, cruel and dangerously stupid.”

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives with a 222-213 majority, have been demanding for months that any increase in the government’s borrowing limit be tied to spending cuts. Last month, they struggled to pass a bill to raise the national debt ceiling while cutting spending by almost 14% in a decade.

Last week, Biden aides and Speaker of the House McCarthy reportedly discussed issues such as spending caps, tougher requirements for food and other benefits for low-income Americans, and changes to energy permits in exchange for votes to lift the cap. This worries some Democrats, especially those on the left.

Pramila Jayapal, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted on Tuesday: “Democrats can’t push for job demands in debt ceiling talks. All the workers’ demands are doing is limiting the availability of food aid for families and harming poor, marginalized communities – the very people we have been chosen to protect.”

John Fetterman, Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, said in a statement: “I am confident that I did not come to Washington to take vital aid from working people while the heads of large banks nearly brought down the economy and can fly away with impunity. to Hawaii.”

Officially, the White House has repeatedly insisted that Republicans should rule out default and treat budgetary issues separately from the need to raise the country’s national debt limit, which he calls a constitutional duty of Congress.

But some observers suspect his real position is less clear.

Bill Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said: “If this crisis is to be resolved, it will be resolved through a spending agreement that will be linked in some way to the debt ceiling, and I have a feeling – I can’t prove it – that the Rubicon has already been crossed out.”

A similar standoff in 2011 between Barack Obama and a new generation of Tea House Republicans led to a historic downgrade of the US credit rating, causing a sell-off in stocks and driving up borrowing costs. Some Democrats argue that Obama made compromises he later regretted, and Biden, then vice president, should avoid repeating himself.

The current impasse has alarmed investors, sending the cost of insuring US government debt to an all-time high.

Complicating the task of making a deal, McCarthy agreed to a change in the rules of the House of Representatives that allows only one member of Parliament to demand his resignation as speaker, which gives more power to hardliners, including about three dozen members of the House of Representatives’ Freedom Caucus.

Political scientist William Howell argues: “Republicans are made up of many different factions. There are some financial conservatives who tend to be concerned about debt and overspending, and there are some, especially the populist wing of the party, who are interested in blowing things up. For them, destruction and disobedience is politically beneficial. For Biden to find a productive path forward, he does not need to enlist the support of all Republicans. He’ll have to get some of them. The question is, to what extent does he need the support of the Republicans, whom can he win over to his side?