President Joe Biden sounded upbeat Wednesday as a divided Washington continued to work on achieving a bipartisan deal that raises the ceiling for federal borrowing and avoids a market-shaking default.
“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget, and America will not default,” Biden said during a brief speech at the White House.
“We’re going to continue these discussions with congressional leaders in the coming days until we reach an agreement, and I’ll have more to say about that on Sunday,” the president also said, adding that he planned to hold a news conference on Sunday.
Biden’s remarks came shortly before he departs for a G-7 meeting in Japan, and after both the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sounded positive notes about their negotiations on Tuesday.
Biden said on Wednesday that he’s cutting his Asia trip short to be there for final negotiations and to be able to sign a deal. In addition, the president said he didn’t think the curtailing of the upcoming trip was a win for China.
Earlier Wednesday, McCarthy told CNBC, “I think at the end of the day we do not have a debt default.” On Tuesday, the California Republican said the “structure of how we negotiate has improved,” because the president has appointed White House staff to talk with the speaker’s team, rather than involving all four top U.S. lawmakers.
Biden remarked on that development Wednesday.
“We narrowed the group to meet and hammer out our differences,” he said. “In fact, they met last night. They’re going to be meeting again today.”
U.S. stocks
SPX,
DJIA,
traded higher Wednesday, as investors remained focused on the debt-ceiling talks.
MarketWatch’s Robert Schroeder contributed to this report.
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