WHEN SIDES SIT DOWN TO NEGOTIATE...:

President Biden spoke to reporters today after his meeting with House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about raising the debt ceiling. "I just finished, I thought, a productive meeting with the congressional leadership about the path forward to make sure America does not default--I emphasize does not default on its debt for the first time in history," he began. "And I'm pleased but not surprised to hear [the] Republican minority leader of the United States Senate saying...at our meeting that the United States is not going to default. It never has, and it never will. And he's absolutely correct." The teams will continue to meet before the principals reconvene on Friday.

Biden went on to lay out the differences between his plan and that of the Republicans under McCarthy. He began by warning that a default would create a "significant recession," devastating retirement accounts and increasing the cost of borrowing. He quoted Moody's Analytics that nearly 8 million Americans would lose their jobs and added that our international reputation would be ruined.

"Default is not an option," he repeated. "America is not a deadbeat nation. We pay our bills." Congress avoided default three times under Trump "without once--not one time--creating a crisis, rattling the markets, or undermining the unshakable trust the world has in America's commitment to paying its bills." Biden noted that Trump drove the debt up significantly and that in his own first two years he had reduced the debt by an unprecedented $1.7 trillion.

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