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Biden heads to Japan as debt standoff looms

He’ll be in ‘constant contact’ back home

COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said there’s “work to do” on the global stage as he headed to Japan on Wednesday to consult with allies on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertiveness in the Pacific at the same time that a debt limit standoff looms at home.

With high-stakes talks to head off a federal default underway in Washington, Biden pledged to remain in “constant contact” with negotiators in the capital city while he conducts international diplomacy.

The president departed Washington aboard Air Force One a day after scrapping plans for a historic stop in Papua New Guinea and a key visit to Australia amid the showdown with House Republicans over raising the federal debt limit. The three-nation trip had been meant as a triumphant global leadership showcase, and instead threatened to become a truncated reminder of how partisan disagreements have undercut U.S. standing on the global stage.

“I’ve cut my trip short in order to be here for the final negotiations and sign the deal with the majority leader,” Biden said in remarks before departing the White House. “I’ve made clear America is not a deadbeat nation, we pay our bills.”

For Biden, the intertwined dynamics of the debt standoff and his foray abroad put a spotlight on two key aspects of his presidency — his efforts to assert U.S. prowess on the international stage and to address economic concerns at home. They also are playing out as Biden is in the early weeks of his candidacy for reelection, adding political overtones to the situation.

Aboard Air Force One en route to Japan, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put Biden in the bad position of canceling part of the trip.

“He is taking the American economy hostage,” she said.

The president was still set to attend the annual Group of Seven summit of advanced democracies in Hiroshima, where sustaining support for Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive against Russia is set to take center stage, alongside economic, climate and global development issues. More than a year after Moscow’s invasion, Biden and allies have armed Kyiv with ever-more-advanced weaponry and maintained deep sanctions on Russia’s economy, though maintaining resolve has grown more challenging in Washington and other global capitals.

While in Hiroshima, Biden also plans to sit down with the so-called Quad leaders of Japan, Australia and India, a partnership meant to serve as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, a region that he bills as a top priority in U.S. national security strategy. That meeting had originally been scheduled to occur next week on what would have been his inaugural visit to Canberra and Sydney as president.

Off the agenda entirely is a stop in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where Pacific Island leaders were to gather for a first-of-its-kind meeting with a U.S. president. It was meant to be a rejoinder to China’s increasing military and economic pressures in the region. The U.S. has recently opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga and has expressed a desire to reverse a decades-long pullback in the region.

No U.S. president has ever visited the island nation, and high hopes for the visit were dashed by Biden’s announcement that he wouldn’t make the stop.

When asked whether he thought his shortened trip was a win for China, he said: “No.”

“Because we still work with allies,” he said.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan dismissed the idea that jettisoning the Australia trip would do any diplomatic damage or give China leverage, arguing Biden’s reputation as a strong ally would help soften the blow while acknowledging the disappointment, particularly in Papua New Guinea, the cancellation has caused.

“The work that we need to do bilaterally with Australia and with the Pacific Islands is work that can be done at a later date, whereas the final stretch of negotiations over the debt limit or the budget cannot be done at a later date,” Sullivan said.

Biden said he made sure to call Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia on Tuesday to let him know of his decision to cancel part of his trip. While officials in the administration were still deciding whether they would shorten the trip, they also discussed sending a replacement, including Vice President Kamala Harris or Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to an official familiar with the matter.

As of Wednesday morning, there were no such plans to send a substitute.

During a roughly hourlong meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Biden and McCarthy designated chief negotiators to try to draft an agreement to allow more government borrowing in conjunction with GOP-demanded spending restraints. The Treasury Department has warned that action is likely needed by June 1 to assure the U.S. can continue to meet its financial obligations.

Biden echoed the optimism offered by both Democratic and Republican leaders after Tuesday’s meeting.

Biden and McCarthy tasked a handful of representatives to work swiftly to try and close out a final deal. They include Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president; legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young for the administration, and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a close McCarthy ally, for the Republicans.

McCarthy, who has said he would personally be involved, said he planned to stop by the talks later Wednesday. He said he would be in Washington for the weekend while negotiations are underway.

Agreement by the negotiators would still leave any deal needing approval by the Democratic Senate and Republican House.

Democrats are upset about the possibility of new work requirements for some recipients of government aid. And Republicans want much tougher budget restraints than the Democrats support.

Republicans have said they want to cut federal spending before lifting the ceiling, while Biden has said negotiating over the cuts must not be a requirement for raising the debt limit. Even so, Democrats have increasingly appeared open to reaching a compromise with Republicans. Both Democratic leaders from New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, told reporters that passing a bipartisan bill in both chambers was the only way forward.

Time is running out for the two sides to reach a consensus.

NEGOTIATING POINTS

The government reached the $31.4 trillion debt limit Jan. 19, and the Treasury Department has been using a series of accounting maneuvers to keep paying its bills. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated that the United States could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit, potentially causing a recession or the elimination of jobs.

In exchange for lifting the debt limit to keep paying the bills, majority House Republicans are trying to extract steep budget caps of no more than 1% growth a year over the next decade, alongside bolstered work requirements.

Negotiators are preparing to claw back some $30 billion of unspent covid-19 aid, now that the government has lifted the pandemic emergency. And they are working on a potential agreement for permit changes that would speed the development of energy projects that both Republicans and Democrats want, though the details remain daunting.

But Democrats are not at all willing to accept the 10-year cap on spending that Republicans approved in their own House bill, and the Democrats are instead pushing for a shorter window of budget cuts.

Biden is facing fierce blowback from progressive Democrats after he opened the door to tougher work requirements. But he insisted Wednesday any new work requirements would be of “no consequence” and that he’s not willing to impact health programs, presumably referring to Medicaid.

Asked about that, the Republicans behind McCarthy — who support more work requirements on Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance programs — broke out in laughter at the Capitol.

The Republicans scoffed aloud as helicopters with the presumably departing Biden flew overhead.

McCarthy, who depended on Donald Trump’s backing to become the new speaker, still has work to do to keep his narrow House majority in line for any final deal, particularly among the hardline Freedom Caucus conservatives who almost blocked his election earlier this year for the gavel.

Former President Trump has encouraged Republicans to “do a default” if they don’t get everything they want from Biden.

“Bipartisanship is needed,” Schumer said Wednesday. “It’s the only way to go.”

As backup on Wednesday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries launched a process that would force a vote on raising the debt limit.

It’s a cumbersome legislative discharge procedure, but Jeffries urged House Democrats to sign on to the measure in hopes of gathering the 218 majority backers including Republicans needed to put it in motion.

“Emerging from the White House meeting, I am hopeful that a real pathway exists to find an acceptable, bipartisan resolution that prevents a default,” Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues.

“However, given the impending June 1 deadline and urgency of the moment, it is important that all legislative options be pursued in the event that no agreement is reached.”

U.S. officials have warned in increasingly urgent tones that a default would not only spark a deep recession, but also weaken its standing on the world stage.

“Countries like Russia and China that would love nothing more than for us to default so they could point the finger and say, ‘You see, the United States is not a stable, reliable partner,’” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. “So, that is a high priority, as it should be, for the president.”

For weeks, White House officials have said Biden could manage both the Capitol Hill negotiations and foreign commitments while on the trip. But in recent days aides have fretted as McCarthy has repeatedly called for Biden to scrap his trip, worried that while abroad, the president would appear to the public as disengaged from the swelling crisis.

The instability of a cancellation could have the opposite effect of the initial purpose of Biden’s trip — reinforcing American commitments to the region — warned Charles Edel, a senior adviser and the Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It would underscore for partners that despite welcome U.S. focus on the region and the focus on allies and partners at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics is still a constraint on U.S. engagement and perhaps on budgetary commitments as well,” he said last week. “And I think that’s something that will be talked about widely.”

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2023-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

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