Tag: Live updates: Debt ceiling negotiations continue as default deadline looms

Members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus are signaling they could oppose a deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the White House, while also warning that dropping some of the spending cuts they have pushed for would “collapse the Republican majority for this debt ceiling increase.”

Asked how many House Republicans could vote against a deal, Good replied that “a majority” could find it unacceptable.

“I don’t want to make predictions because … I’ve just heard some rumors that there may be some sort of a deal that would be less than desirable I believe to a majority of Republicans, and so if that’s true I’m disappointed that that would be the case,” he said.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, said he is also concerned about the direction of the talks.

“Yeah, I am,” he said. “It looks like we’re watering it down, which is not acceptable.”

Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas and member of the House Rules Committee, warned it will take a hefty price to get his vote for the debt ceiling. He also would not commit to backing anything in the rules committee until he sees it.

On his own, Roy doesn’t have the power to block anything, but it is another sign of how conservatives are viewing the emerging deal.

Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida, signaled he’d be a hard conservative to win if the deal with the White House isn’t similar to the debt limit bill passed by House Republicans in April.

Donalds said he didn’t feel members are being kept in the loop on the closely held negotiations.

“I am trying to be calm with my statements, but what I am trying to really stress is — at some point the American people do need to understand exactly what’s happening in this room, because if a deal is made just to try to save face on both sides of the aisle, history tells us that is a terrible thing.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier Thursday he’s not concerned about conservative Republicans not supporting an eventual deal, saying “they just need to be updated.”

In a news conference over the weekend, President Joe Biden addressed the possibility of using the 14th Amendment to continue US government borrowing in the absence of a deal, suggesting he has the power but not the time to utilize the unilateral action.

Pressed by CNN to clarify whether he thought he could invoke the 14th Amendment as a serious and tangible option, the president made clear that maneuver would not be successful given the short window remaining.

“We have not come up with unilateral action that could succeed in a matter of two weeks or three weeks. That’s the issue. So it’s up to lawmakers. But my hope and intention is to resolve this problem,” he said.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said Sunday a potential invocation of the 14th Amendment would be a “dodge.”

“The president needs to show leadership. ‘OK, House Republicans, American people, you’re concerned about spending, I will meet you there. As opposed to finding a dodge that tries to work its way around,” Cassidy said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated Sunday in an interview with NBC News that June 1 was a “hard deadline” for the US to raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting on its obligations.

But Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said there may be some leeway.

“The June 1st date was probably, according to Secretary Yellen, the earliest possible date,” the Pennsylvania Republican told CBS News, adding that “we do have enough cash flow” to “pay the interest on our debt.”

“We’re going start to see the state tax revenues come in the second week of June, so I think we’re OK on that,” Fitzpatrick said.

More on the 14th Amendment: Some experts, including Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School, point to Section 4 of the amendment as the basis of their argument that the president has the authority to order the nation’s debts be paid regardless of the debt limit Congress put in place more than 100 years ago.

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned,” reads the section, which refers to the debt incurred by the Union to fight the Civil War.

Lawmakers who crafted the amendment are very strongly saying that once the US borrows money, it has to pay it back, said Garrett Epps, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oregon. The section was designed to remove debt payments from potential post-war partisan bickering between the North and South, but it also applies to the wide divide between Democrats and Republicans today.

“The federal government is required to pay the debt on time in full,” said Epps, who has long supported using this option in the event Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling.

Keep reading about the amendment and how it factors into the debt ceiling debate here.

CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed reporting in this post.