Several House Democrats Call on Biden to Negotiate with McCarthy on the Debt Ceiling

Several House Democrats continue to call on President Joe Biden to negotiate the debt ceiling with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) following the passage of the House GOP-led bill to raise the cap last week.

As numerous Democrats have made their intentions clear to the public that Biden should negotiate with McCarthy earlier last month, over the last several days, the left has continued to call for the president to start talking with the Speaker over the debt ceiling — especially after the House GOP successfully passed legislation last week catching the White House off guard.

In a letter dated last Wednesday to Biden and McCarthy, three lawmakers — Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Mary Peltola (D-AK) — urged: “It is time to end the partisan standoff and brinkmanship before it rattles markets, damages our economy, and hurts the American people.”

“It is time to engage in good faith negotiation” on the debt limit.

—Three Democrat lawmakers to President Biden

Rep. Jared Golden (D-NE), Rep. Marie Perez (D-WA), and Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) pic.twitter.com/HBP1t71NTa

— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) April 30, 2023

On Friday, Golden also told Axios that the “games” need to be skipped to find a solution and told CNN Biden had “been asking them [Republicans] to pass something – so it’s time to sit down and talk.”

Also on Friday, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), a first-term congressman, told CNN that Biden must negotiate with the Speaker.

“Yeah, and that’s been my position from the beginning. I always think that the president of the United States and the Speaker should always be talking,” Moskowitz said when pressed about the White House’s position to not negotiate with McCarthy being unsustainable.

“We should never say we’re not going to speak to folks across the aisle. I don’t think that’s a sustainable position.”

—Democrat Rep. Jared Moskowitz says President Biden must negotiate with @SpeakerMcCarthy pic.twitter.com/y57Jx018A1

— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) April 28, 2023

The Democrat’s statements come after House Republicans passed legislation — the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 — to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday without any Democrat support. The legislation would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion while tackling America’s national deficit by saving the government an estimated $4.8 trillion over the next ten years.

While the U.S. is expected to reach its debt limit as early as this summer, Biden has refused to meet with McCarthy to discuss the plan with the House Republicans. Biden’s Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, has warned of “economic catastrophe” if Biden and Congress cannot move to increase the limit in time.

Last Monday, the White House released a Statement of Administration Policy, calling the Republican-led legislation “a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred” and vowed to veto the measure if it makes it to Biden’s desk.

Then, on Thursday night, after the legislature passed the House, Politico reported that Biden was caught off guard by McCarthy’s success in getting a debt ceiling bill passed through the House and that White House officials “remain nervous about how and when the standoff will end.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.