Washington (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, canceled the second part of his trip for the G7 summit to Papua New Guinea and Australia to continue with the negotiations on the debt ceiling.
Biden will travel to Japan tomorrow for the summit, but will return to Washington earlier than expected given the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the Republicans to increase the debt limit, which was reached at the beginning of the year and which threatens to lead the country into a historical non-payment of its public debt.
John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, had already announced during a press conference that the president was reassessing the rest of his trip to Asia given the difficulties of reaching an agreement with Congress.
According to the presidential spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden will return to Washington on Sunday, just after the G7 summit, and will not go to Sydney or stop in Papua New Guinea on the way, as he had initially planned.
The president has already notified the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the authorities of Papua New Guinea. He has also invited Albanese to visit the White House in the future.
End the debt impasse
Biden will return on Sunday to “meet with congressional leaders” and ensure that lawmakers “act before the deadline to avoid default.”
The news comes at the same time that a meeting between the Democrat and the leaders of both parties in Congress ends to try to find an agreement and end the impasse on the debt.
In a statement after the meeting, the White House assured that it was a productive and direct talk, and that although there is a lot of work ahead, an agreement on the budget is possible.
The US Executive has tried to disassociate the idea of an agreement on the budget from the need to increase the debt ceiling, something that should be done without conditions, according to the Democrat’s team.
Limit agreements on public spending
However, the Republicans, led by the president of the Lower House, Kevin McCarthy, have defended that they will not allow an increase in the debt ceiling until the government agrees to limits on public spending.
From time to time, the United States faces default on the national debt because, unlike other countries, its Executive can only issue debt up to the limit established by Congress, which has the power to suspend that ceiling as it sees fit.
That limit was reached last January. Currently, the Government is drawing on money in its reserves to pay off the debts it has contracted.
The Treasury Department estimates that these reserves will run out by June 1, although its top manager, Janet Yellen, admitted this morning that it is “impossible to predict” the exact moment at which it will be impossible for the Executive to continue assuming payments.