HIROSHIMA, Japan -- President Joe Biden brushed off noisy statements issued Saturday by both sides in the debt and spending talks gripping Washington, dismissing them as little more than the posturing typical of any negotiation and expressing confidence that he will still be able to strike a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Speaking on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Hiroshima, Biden told reporters that he was not worried about the debt talks back home. "Not at all," he said. He later added, "I still believe we'll be able to avoid a default and get something decent done."
Biden's comments came after a tumultuous battle carried out across the oceans.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly declared Friday a "pause" in talks aimed at raising the debt ceiling to avoid a national default while adopting ways to reduce the deficit, only to send his negotiators back to the table later in the day. But that session broke up after only an hour, and the White House then released a blistering statement accusing Republicans of sticking to "extreme MAGA priorities."
Negotiators for McCarthy said after the Friday evening session that they were uncertain on next steps.
"We reengaged, had a very, very candid discussion, talking about where we are, talking about where things need to be, what's reasonably acceptable," said Rep. Garret Graves, R-La.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was asked if he was confident an agreement over budget issues could be reached with the White House. He replied, "No."
As the White House team left the nighttime session, Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti, who is leading talks for the Democrats, said he was hopeful. "We're going to keep working," he said.
Biden, in Japan, tried to reassure them on Saturday that the United States would not default, a scenario that would rattle the world economy. He said he felt there was headway in the talks.
"The first meetings weren't all that progressive, the second ones were, the third one was," he said before a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "And then, what happens is the carriers go back to the principals and say, 'This is what we're thinking about.' And then people put down new claims. I still believe we'll be able to avoid a default and we'll get something decent done."
Until Saturday, Biden had largely stayed out of the public eye at the summit, forgoing big public statements and leaving Friday's leader dinner early. He has been spending time instead by a video monitor in a room next to his hotel suite, where aides in Washington have been keeping him apprised of the back-and-forth of debt limit talks.
Noting that he has been through many such negotiations in his half-century in Washington, he made clear that he believed such positioning was little more than for show -- presumably including the statement his own staff had issued barely an hour earlier. Each side, he indicated, needs to take a firm stand in order to extract the best deal for itself. That, he added, did not mean they could not eventually get to a consensus.
Biden's public confidence in the prospects for a deal has stirred discontent among some liberals who fear he will give away too much to McCarthy's Republicans, including work requirements for recipients of aid to the indigent.
As it is, the president has essentially dropped his insistence that he would not negotiate spending constraints as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling; the White House maintains that the spending talks now underway are theoretically separate from the issue of raising the debt ceiling, a characterization few others accept.
For days, Biden and aides traveling with him in Japan have expressed optimism that they could work out a deal by the time the president returned to Washington today or shortly thereafter, in plenty of time to raise the debt ceiling before the nation would otherwise reach a default as early as June 1. It was unclear when negotiators planned to meet again.
The White House has essentially cleared the president's schedule for this week, presumably to allow for further talks.
'THEY'VE MOVED BACKWARDS'
In a further indication of how the talks had deteriorated, McCarthy told reporters Saturday at the Capitol that he didn't believe the negotiations would be able to "move forward" until Biden returned to the United States.
"I don't think we're going to be able to move forward until the president can get back into the country," McCarthy said. "Just from the last day to today they've moved backwards. They actually want to spend more money than we spend this year."
Biden's comments to reporters Saturday left a mixed set of messages in just a matter of hours. The White House started the day in Japan with a briefing by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who offered a more measured assessment of the talks than the positive tone of recent days, saying that a deal would depend on whether McCarthy "will negotiate in good faith" and that everyone should recognize that "you don't get everything you want."
She emphasized that "we need Republicans and Democrats," alluding to the concern that congressional Democrats could bolt from an eventual deal if they perceive that the president has gone too far. But she denied that the White House was more pessimistic, using the word "optimistic" 14 times during her briefing.
Three hours later, after Biden spoke with his negotiators back in Washington, his communications director, Ben LaBolt, issued a much different statement that never used the word "optimistic."
"Republicans are taking the economy hostage and pushing us to the brink of default, which could cost millions of jobs and tip the country into recession after two years of steady job and wage growth," LaBolt said.
"Republicans," he added, "are recycling a barely watered-down version of their extreme budget proposal" that would result in spending cuts on education, law enforcement and health care, while reversing plans to hire more IRS agents to target tax cheats and extending tax breaks passed under President Donald Trump. He added that any agreement should include tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, not just spending cuts.
"There remains a path forward to arrive at a reasonable bipartisan agreement if Republicans come back to the table to negotiate in good faith," LaBolt said. "But President Biden will not accept a wish list of extreme MAGA priorities that would punish the middle class and neediest Americans and set our economic progress back."
STILL AT ODDS
Still up for debate are policy changes, including a framework for permitting changes that speed the development of energy projects, as well as the Republican push to impose work requirements on government aid recipients that Biden has been open to but the House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has said was a "nonstarter."
McCarthy faces pressures from his hard-right flank to cut the strongest deal possible for Republicans, and he risks a threat to his leadership as speaker if he fails to deliver. Many House Republicans are unlikely to accept any deal with the White House.
Republicans and the White House are battling over spending cuts, which GOP lawmakers demand as the price for raising the federal borrowing limit.
"We have to spend less than we spend this year," McCarthy said, repeating his bottom-line demand.
Lawmakers are stepping up their attacks on each other as talks have stalled -- despite showing signs of progress earlier in the week.
"I think that Bernie Sanders and the socialist wing of their party has had real effect on the president, especially with him being out of the country," McCarthy said.
Biden is facing increased pushback from Democrats, particularly progressives, who argue the reductions will fall too heavily on domestic programs that Americans rely on.
McCarthy had hoped to at least forge an agreement on an outline for a deal this weekend to tee up a House floor vote on legislation next week.
The Senate has left Washington for its Memorial Day recess, but senators have been told to be prepared to return on 24-hours notice if needed.
The federal government reached its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling set by law months ago. The sides are up against a deadline as soon as June 1 to raise its borrowing limit, so the government can keep paying the nation's bills.
Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker of The New York Times; by Josh Boak, Zeke Miller, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro of The Associated Press; and by Steven T. Dennis, Billy House, Justin Sink and Kailey Leinz of Bloomberg News (TNS).