Biden has no plans of invoking 14th Amendment to prevent debt default

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 May 2023 23:41

For the US to default on its debt, it would have a tremendous impact on the global markets.

The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, Monday evening, May 22, 2023, as negotiators for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., continue meeting on the impasse over the government's debt ceiling (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden currently has no plans to invoke the 14th Amendment to prevent a US debt default, thus ruling out a constitutional solution that would have solved the current debt issue.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today that invoking the 14th Amendment, which would technically enable the US Treasury to ignore the debt limit, "is not going to fix the current problem we have right now."

On Monday, US House Speaker and President Joe Biden said their first one-on-one talks in months to avoid a calamitous debt default were "productive" but disagreements were still blocking any possible deal.

The White House meeting came after Biden cut off a short trip to Asia to recommence talks in advance of the US Treasury's June 1 deadline for Congress to authorize more borrowing.

"I felt we had a productive discussion. We don't have an agreement yet, but I did feel the discussion was productive in areas (where) we have differences of opinion," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said after the talks.

McCarthy told journalists that negotiators were going to "work through the night" to move the sides closer and that he and Biden would "talk every day to try to find a way to get this done."

As they sat down for the meeting, Biden said, "I am optimistic we are going to make some progress," adding both sides understood they have "a significant responsibility" to solve the impasse.

Afterward, the President used a similar rhetoric as McCarthy in a statement, describing the meeting as "productive" while adding that "areas of disagreement" remain.

For the US to default on its debt, it would have a tremendous impact on the global markets.

So far, the demand for concessions on the part of the GOP involve the White House signing up for budget cuts in exchange for Republican backing to raise the debt ceiling.

Democrats, on the other hand, have been calling for a "clean" raise of the debt limit, which would prevent a financial meltdown of the US economy ahead of the June 1 deadline - a day on which many predict the US will start defaulting if the debt ceiling is not raised.