(NewsNation) — U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday that debt ceiling negotiations with the White House are paused and called on President Joe Biden to agree to spending cuts.
“We can’t be spending more money next year, we have to spend less,” McCarthy told reporters.
The standstill comes as the president continues his overseas trip for the G7 summit and as the anticipated June 1 debt limit deadline looms less than two weeks away.
An official for the White House confirmed negotiations had stalled Friday.
“There are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult,” a White House official said. “The President’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate.”
The snag comes just days after the House Speaker sounded optimistic that a deal could be done by the week’s end.
When asked about specific areas of disagreement between the two sides, those negotiating on behalf of the House GOP said there are multiple points of contention but would not specify.
“We have a gap on many issues, so we had to take a pause,” said Rep. Pat McHenry, R-NC.
McHenry said he did not know when talks would resume or whether a deal would get done by the weekend.
Another one of the top GOP negotiators, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., called the White House’s position “unreasonable.”
Throughout negotiations, Republicans have pushed for stricter work requirements on government aid recipients. Biden has suggested he might be open to considering it, but Democrats in Congress have said it’s a nonstarter.
Without a deal, the country is edging closer to risking a potentially highly damaging default on U.S. government debt.
That deadline could come as soon as June 1 when the Treasury Department has said it will run out of cash to pay the government’s incurred debt.
This is a developing story and will continue to be updated.