(Headline USA) Leftist lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned President Joe Biden not to negotiate with Republicans this week over the debt ceiling.
Biden is set to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other congressional leaders this week to reach a deal on the debt ceiling before the U.S. defaults. McCarthy and House Republicans passed their own debt ceiling increase that includes significant spending cuts, which Biden has thus far dismissed as a non-starter.
Leftists insisted that Biden continue to hold his ground, despite the economic disaster that a default would guarantee.
“It’s really important we don’t give ground,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Axios. “We have made it clear … that if they give on these core Democratic values, there will be a huge backlash.”
Ocasio-Cortez echoed this threat, warning Biden that there would be “pushback” among congressional Democrats to “nearly any significant concession.”
“It’s profoundly destructive and it also threatens to weaken the president,” she said of potential negotiations.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., agreed: “”I’m very, very concerned … It makes us look weak and like we don’t know what we’re doing.”
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has signaled much more openness to negotiations, telling reporters this week that his talks with McCarthy have been “good and productive.”
“We are closer to a deal,” he said on Tuesday, adding that both sides agreed a default would be a horrible idea.
But McCarthy was more critical than Schumer, saying the two sides are still “far apart.”
“I still think we’re far apart,” McCarthy said on Monday. “It doesn’t seem to me yet that they want a deal. It seems like they want to look like they’re in a meeting. They’re not talking anything serious.”
