Digging In on the Debt Ceiling

Punchbowl News: “Biden will meet with the Big Four — Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — at the White House tomorrow afternoon. Amazingly, this is the first time the five of them will sit down together while serving in their current roles.”

“Both sides spent the weekend digging in even more on their respective positions. Biden, Schumer and Jeffries insist Congress must pass a clean debt-limit hike first, and then there can be negotiations over spending cuts and budget reforms. McCarthy and McConnell refuse to consider any debt-limit hike without spending cuts.”

“Senior GOP and Democratic sources say this faceoff is likely to continue for the next couple weeks, even with a potential June 1 government default approaching fast. We don’t mean to be alarmist, but the level of confusion and crosstalk here rivals what we saw during the 2011 debt-limit debacle. How this current crisis ends is still unclear.”

Politico: Why McConnell and McCarthy locked arms on the debt crisis.

Just over three weeks to possible default, and there’s no sign of movement.