Donald Trump jumped head first into the now-paused debt ceiling negotiations. After hearing the news about the pause in talks between Democrats and Republicans, the former president was quick to comment on the matter through his own social network, Truth Social.
After the second meeting between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy, things were looking up, and optimism for reaching an agreement by the June 1 deadline was growing. That ended on Friday, when one of the speaker's emissaries said it was time for a break.
Trump took to social media and posted the following, "Republicans should not make a deal on the debt ceiling unless they get everything they want (Including the ‘kitchen sink’). That’s the way the Democrats have always dealt with us. Do not fold!!!.”
His words are in line with those of the House Freedom Caucus, which recently expressed some hostility toward negotiations between the speaker and the White House. They said they will be unhappy if the deal does not return spending to FY2022 levels, raise the debt limit for next year only and restrict spending growth to 1% over the next decade.
In other words, the goal is that the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 be approved as is, something that seems complicated with the Democratic majority in the Senate.
"The U.S. House of Representatives has done its job in passing the Limit, Save, Grow Act to provide a mechanism to raise the debt ceiling. This legislation is the official position of the House Freedom Caucus and, by its passage with 217 votes, the entire House Republican Conference," they said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire.
"The House Freedom Caucus calls on Speaker McCarthy and Senate Republicans to use every leverage and tool at their disposal to ensure is signed into law. There should be no further discussion until the Senate passes the legislation," they added.
There won’t be progress "until people are willing to have reasonable conversations"
One of the speaker's most important emissaries in the negotiations is Congressman Garret Graves (R-La.). In the last few days, with a more positive tone, he was in charge of setting the dialogue on the road to a possible agreement with the White House. The optimism was cut short on Friday, when the representative announced that he plans to "press pause" on negotiations.
"We’ve decided to press pause, because it’s just not productive," he said in a press conference after leaving a meeting on Capitol Hill. "Until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, we aren’t going to sit here and talk to ourselves," added the congressman, who has represented Louisiana's 6th congressional district since 2015.
His words were reinforced by a White House official, who indicated that talks had been cooling off in recent hours. "There are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult. The president’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate," he said.
