U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government’s debt limit during a visit to SUNY Westchester Valhalla Community College in Valhalla, New York, May 10, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden hosts congressional leaders at the White House for a much-anticipated meeting on debt limits on Tuesday, stricter job requirements for emerging social safety net programs like an area of potential compromise.
The White House also said on Tuesday that it would cancel the second leg of the president’s upcoming international trip, due to the delicate state of debt ceiling negotiations.
Biden is now scheduled to depart Wednesday for Japan, where he will attend the G7 summit. He will now return to the US on Sunday as soon as the meeting ends and will not make planned visits to Papua New Guinea and Australia, a source familiar with Biden’s trip plans said. with NBC News.
His return would represent an important turning point in efforts to avoid a first-time U.S. debt default and prevent massive economic damage.
Job restrictions on social programs are a key request from House Republicans, who included them in the partisan debt-limiting bill that passed that room last month.
“The public wants it,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday, citing a recent ballot initiative in Wisconsin. “Both sides want it, the idea that [Democrats] wanting to put us in default because they won’t work with us on that is ludicrous to me.”
But the issue is also a red line for some progressive Democrats, a fact that could mess up the voting math for any debt-limiting deal that could be passed by the House. .
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and member of the Congressional Radical Group, said it was “not smart” to increase current job requirements for federal aid programs. To me”.
“It’s cruel, especially when we see a slowdown in the economy,” Khanna said. “I hope the president will stick to what he has said, that we pay our debts and then we can negotiate the budget.”
But Biden and the White House have in recent days signaled that the demands could be on the table, as Congress races to reach an agreement to raise or suspend the debt limit in time to avoid a recession. economy due to the possibility of a possible default as early as next month. .
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are meeting with McCarthy, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R – Ky.
Over the weekend, Biden responded to a question about job requirements by pointing to his own Senate record of voting on welfare job requirements in the 1990s.
“I voted for tougher aid programs, that’s already in the law, but for Medicaid it’s a different story,” Biden said Sunday in Rehoboth, Del. “And so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is.”
A Republican bill passed last month includes stricter work requirements not only for Medicaid but also for the Temporary Assistance Fund for Needy Families, or TANF, as well as votes Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program foods.
The White House reiterated Tuesday that Biden would turn down at least some of the proposed job requests.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “wouldn’t accept proposals that would strip people of health insurance.” However, she did not say that he would not accept changes to food stamps or temporary assistance programs.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
