WH confirms Biden's top priority remains debt ceiling negotiations

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 May 2023 21:06

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre announces that despite US President Joe Biden's travel plan to Japan for a G7 summit, the debt ceiling negotiations with Congress remain his top priority.

President Joe Biden boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2023, to travel to the Hudson Valley in New York. (AP)

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, stated, on Wednesday, that the most important item on US President Joe Biden's agenda remained the negotiations with Congress to raise the United States' debt ceiling despite preparing to head toward the Indo-Pacific region for a Group of Seven (G7) summit set to in Japan.

"The President said yesterday he is committed to going to the G7 on this trip… but preventing default is the single most important thing on his agenda," Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing when asked whether the negotiations will obstruct Biden's G7 trip.

Media outlets, earlier today, said that Biden might not attend the upcoming G7 meeting in Japan next week if the debt ceiling issue is not resolved by then.

"I’m still committed, but obviously this is the single most important thing on the agenda," CNN quoted the President as telling journalists after meeting with congressional leaders on the matter.

But he added that his trip is "not likely" to be canceled, yet it still remains a possibility.

"If somehow we got down to the wire and we still hadn’t resolved this, and the due date was a matter of when I was supposed to be away, I would not go ... I would stay until this gets finished," Biden said.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress on Sunday that failing to resolve the debt ceiling issue on their part might create a "constitutional crisis" and send out a ripple effect across the financial markets.

The Treasury Department is exhausting its available measures to avoid a default and will not be able to do that for long, Yellen added in an interview on ABC's This Week.

To discuss the debt ceiling crisis, Biden met in the White House on Tuesday with congressional leaders Republican US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.