GOP Rep. McHenry: I Don’t See How We Avoid Debt Default Since Biden Won’t Engage in Same Talks He Engaged in and Praised in 2011

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said that the White House has ignored outreach from the House on negotiating an agreement on the debt ceiling and that House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is asking President Joe Biden to engage in the same negotiations that Biden took part in and praised in 2011.

McHenry said, “Well, look, the Speaker made it clear, his approach on raising the debt ceiling is different than previous speakers. He’d prefer to sit down with the President and negotiate this out, no brinksmanship, do it ahead of time, have an active set of conversations, like they did in 2011, that then-Vice President Biden led on behalf of the Obama administration. That’s the Speaker’s preference. … I welcome that. Look, I don’t want any brinksmanship here on the debt ceiling. I’ve made that very clear internally to my colleagues, very clear publicly. I don’t think America needs that sort of trepidation around the treasuries market in a time of rising rates. Now, having said that, the Speaker had active outreach to the President, the President did not respond. There are no conversations happening between staffers for the Speaker, those of us that work on behalf of the Speaker, the leadership team here in the House of Representatives, there [are] no conversations with the White House.”

He added, “And look, I have been an optimist that we can get this thing done, that reasonable minds can work something out without a lot of drama. I am — I don’t see how we get there, at this point.”

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