Will the US President finally get the long-awaited deal? Washington continued negotiations this Friday, May 26 to try to escape the default. This ax could fall on June 5 instead of the 1st, thanks to the short deadline obtained by the Head of State. Biden said he felt “optimistic” before saying he hoped to know “by tonight if (they will) be able to get a deal done.”
“We’re closer (to an agreement) but it’s not done yet,” a source close to the talks said earlier, skeptical about the possibility of an announcement as early as Friday. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, Republican protagonist of this politico-financial soap opera, had noted progress.
But “nothing is certain until everything has been agreed,” he added, to keep the pressure on the president. There is no shortage of pressure in this affair, which is difficult to understand outside the United States and more generally outside the Washington bubble. One of the main sticking points is the Republicans’ demand that recipients of benefits, such as food aid, work in exchange for obtaining them.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Republicans are prepared to jeopardize “more than 8 million jobs if they fail to take the bread out of the mouths of Americans who have hunger “. The date by which the US Treasury will find itself unable to honor its financial commitments has, however, been refined, now set for June 5, offering a few days of respite.
“Based on the most recent data available, we now estimate that the Treasury will not have sufficient resources to meet the government’s obligations if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt ceiling by June 5. “, detailed Friday the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, in a letter to the elected officials of Congress. More than $130 billion in pension, health and veterans’ payments are expected in the first two days of June, which “will leave the Treasury with an extremely low level of resources,” she said. precise.
The challenge is to get Congress – the Republican House and the Democratic Senate – to vote quickly to raise the public debt ceiling, otherwise the United States could find itself in default, an unprecedented situation with economic implications. , potentially catastrophic financial and social. This parliamentary maneuver has long been a formality for both parties. But this time the Republicans demand, in exchange for their green light, a reduction in public spending. Officially, Joe Biden refuses to negotiate, believing he is being held “hostage”.
In reality, the advisers of the two camps have been talking non-stop for days and, according to several American media, have already agreed on some main lines. The agreement would freeze certain expenses but without touching the budgets devoted to defense and veterans, report for example the New York Times and the Washington Post. It would postpone for two years, until after the next presidential election, the risk of default.
