‘We Pay Our Bills’: Biden Extends White House Invitation to McCarthy as Debt-Ceiling Crisis Looms

President Joe Biden extended an invitation to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) to visit the White House on May 9 to discuss the debt ceiling, just hours after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the federal government could run out of money as early as June 1.

“This afternoon, President Biden called Speaker McCarthy, who is leading a CODEL [Congressional Delegation] in Israel, to invite him to a meeting at the White House on May 9 with Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell, who the President also called today,” a White House readout published on Monday afternoon noted.

The president’s request comes on the heels of Secretary Yellen’s letter to Representative McCarthy on Monday imploring the speaker of the House to “protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible.”

“Given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” Yellen added.

Lower-than-expected tax receipts collected by the federal government has accelerated the debt-ceiling deadline — often referred to as the “x-date” — which previously was estimated to fall between July and September.

Yellen’s cautionary note was echoed by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan government agency.

“Because tax receipts through April have been less than the Congressional Budget Office anticipated in February, we now estimate that there is a significantly greater risk that the Treasury will run out of funds in early June,” CBO director Phillip Swagel wrote in a blog post published on Monday.

Republicans have spied an opportunity to leverage the newfound urgency on the part of the Biden administration to advance spending cuts. Some proposals include reducing financial support for such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“Those who support a clean debt ceiling are ignoring fiscal & economic realities,” Representative Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) tweeted on Sunday ahead of the news. “We’re running up debts faster than we’ll EVER have an ability to pay off. China’s trying to negotiate AROUND the US dollar to remove us from world currency reserve status. These are MAJOR issues.”

Meanwhile, Democratic messaging has sought to stress the historical importance of the United States never defaulting.

“For over 200 years, America has never, ever, ever failed to pay its debt,” President Biden said at an event on Monday. In “colloquial terms, America is not a deadbeat nation. We have never, ever failed to meet the debt,” he said.

“We pay our bills, and we should do so without reckless hostage-taking from some of the MAGA Republicans in Congress.”