Politics

By Daniel Becerril and Ted Hesson

MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday ended COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 order with a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.

But several last-minute court actions added confusion to how the new border policies will play out in coming days.

Just before Title 42 was set to expire at midnight on May 11, immigration advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge to the new asylum bars, claiming they violate U.S. laws and international agreements.

    Advocates argue the new regulation, put in place by Democratic President Joe Biden to curb illegal crossings, resembles restrictions issued by former President Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor. The rights groups successfully blocked the Trump rules in court and asked the same California-based judge to block these as well.

The Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chaotic scenes unfolded of migrants scrambling to enter the country on Thursday before Title 42 expired and the new rule went in to effect. The regulation presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without first seeking protection elsewhere, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry, which Biden has expanded.

Thousands of migrants have waded through rivers, climbed walls and scrambled up embankments onto U.S. soil in recent days, hoping to be processed before midnight.

Some migrants turned themselves in to border officials. Others tried to cross undetected.

In Matamoros, Mexico, on Thursday afternoon groups crossed the Rio Grande River in chin-high water. Some carried tiny babies and bags of belongings above their heads to make it into Brownsville, Texas.

In El Paso, Texas, hundreds of migrants camped out on downtown streets trying to figure out where to go next after crossing the border from Juarez, Mexico.

More migrants – including families with young children wrapped in Mylar blankets – awaited processing while penned between two towering border walls in San Diego, California, across from Tijuana, Mexico.

COVID EMERGENCY ENDS, ASYLUM BAN BEGINS

Trump first implemented Title 42 in March 2020 as COVID swept the globe. Health officials said at the time the order aimed to curb the spread of the virus in crowded detention facilities. It allowed U.S. authorities to quickly expel migrants to Mexico or other countries without the chance to request U.S. asylum.

But Democrats, public health experts and immigration advocates saw it as an extension of Trump’s quest to block migrants at the border.

Biden, who campaigned on reversing Trump’s policies, kept Title 42 in place and ultimately expanded it.

Migrants have been expelled more than 2.7 million times under Title 42, although the total includes many repeat crossers.

Mexico has generally only accepted certain nationalities – its own citizens, many Central Americans and more recently migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti. So during the same period, around 2.8 million migrants ineligible for expulsion were allowed into the United States under a process known as Title 8 to pursue their immigration claims in court, which can take months or years.

Even before Title 42 expired, along with the end of the COVID public health emergency, Biden’s administration was grappling with record numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, straining U.S. authorities and border cities.

Republicans fault Biden for easing the more restrictive Trump policies. Biden has blamed Congress for not passing comprehensive immigration reform.

But with the new asylum rule, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden officials have been trying to spread the message that illegal crossers will face consequences, sending troops and thousands of additional personnel to the borer.

“Do not believe the lies of smugglers. The border is not open,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

Some migrants who spoke to Reuters on Thursday said they heard it would be more difficult to enter the country after May 11 and rushed to cross before the deadline. Daily apprehensions rose above 10,000 this week and detention capacity maxed out.

Due to the high volume of arrivals, agents on Wednesday began releasing some migrants without a notice to appear in immigration court where they can make an asylum claim, telling them to report to an immigration office later. But late Thursday night, a federal judge in Florida blocked such releases, saying they failed to follow proper regulatory procedures.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection called the ruling “harmful” and said it would “result in unsafe overcrowding” at border facilities. 

(Reporting by Daniel Becerril in Matamoros, Mexico and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Evan Garcia in Brownsville, Texas, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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By Daniel Becerril and Ted Hesson

MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday ended COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 order with a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.

But several last-minute court actions added confusion to how the new border policies will play out in coming days.

Just before Title 42 was set to expire at midnight on May 11, immigration advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge to the new asylum bars, claiming they violate U.S. laws and international agreements.

    Advocates argue the new regulation, put in place by Democratic President Joe Biden to curb illegal crossings, resembles restrictions issued by former President Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor. The rights groups successfully blocked the Trump rules in court and asked the same California-based judge to block these as well.

Marsha Espinosa, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, defended the Biden regulation, saying it “seeks to incentivize migrants to use lawful pathways” instead of crossing the border illegally.

Chaotic scenes unfolded of migrants scrambling to enter the country on Thursday before Title 42 expired and the new rule went in to effect. The regulation presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without first seeking protection elsewhere, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry, which Biden has expanded.

Thousands of migrants have waded through rivers, climbed walls and scrambled up embankments onto U.S. soil in recent days, hoping to be processed before midnight.

Some migrants turned themselves in to border officials. Others tried to cross undetected.

In Matamoros, Mexico, on Thursday afternoon groups crossed the Rio Grande River in chin-high water. Some carried tiny babies and bags of belongings above their heads to make it into Brownsville, Texas.

In El Paso, Texas, hundreds of migrants camped out on downtown streets trying to figure out where to go next after crossing the border from Juarez, Mexico.

More migrants – including families with young children wrapped in Mylar blankets – awaited processing while penned between two towering border walls in San Diego, California, across from Tijuana, Mexico.

COVID EMERGENCY ENDS, ASYLUM BAN BEGINS

Trump first implemented Title 42 in March 2020 as COVID swept the globe. Health officials said at the time the order aimed to curb the spread of the virus in crowded detention facilities. It allowed U.S. authorities to quickly expel migrants to Mexico or other countries without the chance to request U.S. asylum.

But Democrats, public health experts and immigration advocates saw it as an extension of Trump’s quest to block migrants at the border.

Biden, who campaigned on reversing Trump’s policies, kept Title 42 in place and ultimately expanded it.

Migrants have been expelled more than 2.7 million times under Title 42, although the total includes many repeat crossers.

Mexico has generally only accepted certain nationalities – its own citizens, many Central Americans and more recently migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti. So during the same period, around 2.8 million migrants ineligible for expulsion were allowed into the United States under a process known as Title 8 to pursue their immigration claims in court, which can take months or years.

Even before Title 42 expired, along with the end of the COVID public health emergency, Biden’s administration was grappling with record numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, straining U.S. authorities and border cities.

Republicans fault Biden for easing the more restrictive Trump policies. Biden has blamed Congress for not passing comprehensive immigration reform.

But with the new asylum rule, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden officials have been trying to spread the message that illegal crossers will face consequences, sending troops and thousands of additional personnel to the borer.

“Do not believe the lies of smugglers. The border is not open,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

Some migrants who spoke to Reuters on Thursday said they heard it would be more difficult to enter the country after May 11 and rushed to cross before the deadline. Daily apprehensions rose above 10,000 this week and detention capacity maxed out.

Due to the high volume of arrivals, agents on Wednesday began releasing some migrants without a notice to appear in immigration court where they can make an asylum claim, telling them to report to an immigration office later. But late Thursday night, a federal judge in Florida blocked such releases, saying they failed to follow proper regulatory procedures.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection called the ruling “harmful” and said it would “result in unsafe overcrowding” at border facilities. 

(Reporting by Daniel Becerril in Matamoros, Mexico and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Evan Garcia in Brownsville, Texas, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kim Coghill)

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By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will kick off fundraising for her 2024 re-election campaign in the swing state of Georgia on Friday as she and President Joe Biden tap donors for contributions to a ticket that raised over $1 billion in 2020.

Harris will be headlining the Democratic Party of Georgia’s Spring Soiree fundraiser – a gathering expected to have hundreds of attendees. She will also attend a private fundraiser hosted by the Democratic National Committee, a White House official said.

The events come a day after Biden began his 2024 fundraising spree and attended two events in New York hosted by wealthy donors, where he addressed concerns about his age and said the upcoming campaign could be “a pretty ugly” one. The president launched his re-election bid in April with a promise to protect personal freedoms.

Georgia, which was considered safely Republican just a decade ago, has since seen significant change as Black voters, college-educated suburban women and young adults become more politically active.

Harris played a key role in mobilizing those voters ahead of the midterms with a focus on abortion rights to help boost turnout for Democrats. Biden won the state by a narrow margin in 2020.

Biden and Harris face significant political headwinds in their bid for a second term, including low approval numbers and concerns about Biden’s age. Political strategists have said Harris’s appeal as a fundraiser for the re-election campaign will be tested in the coming months.

Harris’s 2020 campaign ‘Kamala Harris for the People’ raised over $40 million, with nearly 57% coming from large contributors, according to campaign finance records.

Harris cited a lack of “financial resources” when she dropped out of the 2020 presidential campaign but had a bundler donation list that spanned from Wall Street to Silicon Valley that was considered among the most valuable in the 2020 field. She is expected to tap those resources in 2024.

In April, Biden and Harris met 150 high-dollar donors and fundraisers in Washington, who will tap their networks to help fund their campaign over the next 18 months.

Biden’s campaign in 2020 was the first presidential campaign in history to raise over $1 billion. Campaign officials say it may need well more than $1 billion this time to re-elect Biden, hold the Senate and regain control of the House of Representatives, which Republicans took in the 2022 midterm elections.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, Editing by Chris Sanders and Edwina Gibbs)

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By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A debt limit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and top lawmakers that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed, and the leaders agreed to meet early next week, a White House spokesperson said on Thursday.

“Staff will continue working and all the principals agreed to meet early next week,” the spokesperson said.

Aides to Biden, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and Democrats Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss raising the debt ceiling, the White House said earlier.

The aides have started to discuss ways to limit federal spending, as talks on raising the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default creep forward, people familiar with the discussions said.

White House officials acknowledge that they must accept some spending cuts or strict caps on future spending if they are to strike a deal, two sources said, while insisting they must preserve Biden’s signature climate legislation that passed along party lines last year.

The White House portrayed the postponement as a positive development, with meetings progressing.

The U.S. federal government could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as June 1, the Treasury said, unless the debt ceiling is raised. Biden is set to leave the country next week to attend the G7 meeting in Japan, and there are just a few days left when he and House and Senate leadership will be in town before that deadline.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Jarrett Renshaw and Rami Ayyub, writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Scott Malone and Eric Beech)

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By Daphne Psaledakis and Maya Gebeily

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) -A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday intended to bar the American government from recognizing Bashar al-Assad as Syria’s president and to enhance Washington’s ability to impose sanctions – a warning to other countries normalizing relations with Assad.

The bill, first reported by Reuters, would prohibit the government from recognizing or normalizing relations with any Syrian government led by Assad, who is under U.S. sanctions, and expands on the Caesar Act, which imposed a tough round of sanctions on Syria in 2020.

The proposed legislation comes after Arab states turned the page on years of confrontation with Assad on Sunday by allowing Syria back into the Arab League, a milestone in his regional rehabilitation even as the West continues shunning him after years of civil war.

Regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others, had for years supported anti-Assad rebels, but Syria’s army – backed by Iran, Russia and allied paramilitary groups – regained most of the country. The icy ties with Assad began to thaw more quickly after devastating earthquakes in Syria and Turkey in February.

“Countries choosing to normalize with (the) unrepentant mass murderer and drug trafficker, Bashar al-Assad, are headed down the wrong path,” U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, the chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, said in a statement.

Syria’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bill was introduced by Wilson, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a fellow Republican; Republican French Hill and Democrat Brendan Boyle, who co-chair the Free, Democratic and Stable Syria Caucus; and others.

The legislation is a warning to Turkey and Arab countries that if they engage with Assad’s government, they could face severe consequences, a senior congressional staffer who worked on the bill told Reuters.

“The readmission of Syria to the Arab League really infuriated (Congress) members and made clear the need to quickly act to send a signal,” the staffer said.

The staffer said the State Department was consulted in the drafting of the bill.

Asked about the measure at a regular news briefing, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel declined to comment on pending legislation. But he said Washington has been very clear it does not seek to normalize relations with Assad’s government and would not support its allies and other partners doing so either.

The bill’s provisions include a requirement that the secretary of state provide Congress with a strategy for countering normalization with Assad’s government – including a list of diplomatic meetings between Syria’s government and Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and others – every year for five years.

The legislation would also pave the way for sanctions to be imposed on airports that allow landings by Syrian Arab Airlines and another carrier, Cham Wings, the staffer said.

If passed, the bill would also require a review of transactions, including donations over $50,000 in areas of Syria held by Assad’s government by anyone in Turkey, the UAE, Egypt and several other countries.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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By Jarrett Renshaw and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A debt limit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and top lawmakers that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed, and the leaders agreed to meet early next week, a White House spokesperson said on Thursday.

Aides from both sides have started to discuss ways to limit federal spending, as talks on raising the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default creep forward, people familiar with the discussions said.

“Staff will continue working and all the principals agreed to meet early next week,” the spokesperson said.

The aides to Biden, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss raising the debt ceiling, the White House said earlier.

McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that the delay was not a sign of trouble in the talks but that he believed the staff negotiators who had been meeting this week needed to continue to talk before the principals met again.

“I don’t think there’s enough progress for the leaders to get back together,” he said. He also said one of the Congress members wasn’t able to make the Friday meeting. 

White House officials acknowledge that they must accept some spending cuts or strict caps on future spending if they are to strike a deal, two sources said, while insisting they must preserve Biden’s signature climate legislation that passed along party lines last year.

The House Republican bill to suspend the borrowing limit passed in April would cut government spending to 2022 levels, cap its future growth below inflation and repeal incentives for renewable energy, electric vehicles and other climate-friendly technology passed in the Biden legislation.

The two sides are also debating how long to push out the next potential debt ceiling showdown, sources said. Biden and Democrats would prefer a two-year window, pushing any legislative action beyond the 2024 presidential election, but they may have to accept larger spending cuts or stricter caps to get more time, the sources said.

    “Spending levels is the key,” Republican Representative Daniel Webster said before the talks were rescheduled. “Spending cuts is a place where we’re stuck. Not with all of them, but with a list of them. Not necessarily in any order, just that we want some.”

Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request relies on tax increases to reduce deficits while proposing to increase discretionary spending by 5 percent next year. That represents a more than $200 billion difference with House Republicans, however, who want to cut agency budgets on average by 8 percent while increasing defense and veterans spending — meaning other programs would face steeper cuts.

The fact that spending cuts and caps are under discussion could be a sign of progress in talks where Democrats have long pushed for an unconditional lifting of the debt ceiling, while Republicans have demanded a slew of policy changes in addition to sharp spending cuts.

The White House portrayed the postponement as a positive development, with meetings progressing.

The U.S. federal government could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as June 1, the Treasury said, unless the debt ceiling is raised. Biden is set to leave the country next week to attend the G7 meeting in Japan, and there are just a few days left when he and House and Senate leadership will be in town before that deadline.

(Reporting by David Morgan, Jeff Mason, Jarrett Renshaw and Rami Ayyub, writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chair of a U.S. House of Representatives committee on China’s Communist Party and other lawmakers on Thursday raised “deep concern” and sought answers over reports Chinese-owned short video app TikTok censored an account that posted content from a film about pro-democracy Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Representative Mike Gallagher and 12 other Republican lawmakers said in a letter to TikTok CEO Show Zi Chew that they want “additional information about TikTok’s content moderation policies and practices.”

The Michigan-based Acton Institute said last week its TikTok account was suspended for posting content from the film about Lai. The lawmakers said the account was restored after media reports about the suspension.

TikTok did not immediately comment.

ByteDance-owned TikTok told U.S. lawmakers in a May 4 letter that “TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities” and does not boost content “in the U.S. at the request of any government, including the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok said it has more than 5,000 employees and contractors focused on content moderation for the United States.

Senators Mark Warner, a Democrat and John Thune, a Republican, in March proposed legislation to give the Commerce Department new authority to review, block, and address a range of transactions involving foreign information and communications technology that pose national security risks.

The White House and 26 senators back the proposal while critics say the bill is overbroad and hurts civil liberties of Americans including the more than 150 million U.S. TikTok users.

Chew appeared before Congress in March and faced tough questions about national security concerns.

TikTok says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.

The Biden administration has demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a U.S. ban. Then President Donald Trump’s attempts in 2020 to ban TikTok were blocked by U.S. courts.

(Reporting by David Shepardson;editing by Diane Craft)

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By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leaders of major insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) traded blame for the life-saving drug’s high price on Wednesday while testifying at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on making it more affordable.

PBMs negotiate with drugmakers for rebates and lower fees on behalf of employers and other clients, and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions they dispense. Both sides blame each other for high drug prices.

Testifying on Wednesday were the CEOs of major insulin manufacturers Eli Lilly and Co, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, which together control 90% of the U.S. market, and top PBM executives from CVS Health Corp, Cigna Group’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group Inc’s Optum RX, which control 80% of the prescription drug market.

“Why, in the richest country on Earth, do 1.3 million Americans ration insulin because of the cost? Why are 1 out of 4 Americans not able to afford the prescription drugs their doctors prescribe?” asked Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

The Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi CEOs all said drugmakers pay substantial rebates aimed at lowering costs but that PBMs and insurers are incentivized to choose drugs with higher prices because they lead to larger rebates.

“Higher list prices allow for higher fees and rebates, which can increase patients out of pocket costs while benefiting employers, insurance companies and people who don’t use medicines,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said.

PBM executives said manufacturers alone set the drug prices and abuse patent protections to stifle competition. Drug costs would be even higher without the rebates that PBMs negotiate for their customers, Optum Rx CEO Heather Cianfrocco said.

“They count on us to be a counterweight to the substantial market power of manufacturers, which have the sole discretion in setting and raising prices for their products,” she said.

The Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi CEOs pointed to their companies cutting list prices by more than 70% for some insulin products in March and said they hoped to provide insulin to more customers a year from now.

The cuts could help around 2 million people pay for insulin. Although many people, including some 3.3 million on Medicare, pay $35 a month or less, about 1-in-5 with private insurance and the 17% of insulin users who are uninsured stand to benefit.

Uninsured people often have to pay full list prices, an average of $900 a month, forcing many to ration or skip doses.

In response to a question from Sanders, the pharmaceutical executives all committed to keep their newest insulin available to patients at $35 a month or less.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Additional Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Stephen Coates)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved Republican legislation intended to stop immigrants and illegal drugs crossing the nation’s southwestern border with Mexico, leaving it to the Senate to attempt a broader, bipartisan immigration bill.

The package, which Democrats have warned will be blocked in the Senate, would set tight limits on asylum seekers and require them to apply for U.S. protection outside the country. It also would resume construction of a wall along the border and expand federal law enforcement efforts.

The House voted 219-213 to pass the bill, with no Democrats in favor and one Republican opposed.

“The key component of this bill is where we say, ‘If you come to our country, you will get to, according to the law, file your asylum claim…but you will be detained or you will be returned while your claim is adjudicated,’” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan during debate on the bill.

The vote occurred in anticipation of the Thursday midnight expiration of the Title 42 immigration restriction that began under former President Donald Trump in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has allowed U.S. authorities to expel migrants to Mexico without the chance to seek asylum, citing health concerns.

Officials at the southwestern border were seeing large influxes of immigrants in the final days of Title 42 expiration.

“My Republican colleagues are trying to take us back to the failed, illegal and immoral policies of the Trump administration,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel.

“This bill serves as a wholesale ban on asylum. No one would be able to seek asylum in the United States if they cross between ports of entry or if they had or could have had even temporary status in a third country,” Nadler added.

While the House bill is not expected to get to President Joe Biden’s desk for signing into law, there are hopes in the Senate that it will spark negotiations for a bipartisan, comprehensive border security and immigration reform measure in coming months.

Independent Senator Krysten Sinema told reporters hours before the House vote that the Republican bill would open the way to shaping a “final package” to address not only border security but also reforms to the U.S. asylum system and the manner in which visas are doled out.

Over the past three decades, meaningful immigration reforms have been unsuccessful in Congress. As Biden gears up for re-election next year, the large numbers of people seeking asylum in the United States have raised voter awareness.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week found 54% of respondents, including 77% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats, opposed opening the border to more immigrants every year and only 26% said they approved of Biden’s handling of immigration.

But even within the Republican Party there are some divisions over immigration policy.

House Republican leaders at the last minute had to modify provisions of their bill for the U.S. agriculture industry to comply with “E-Verify” requirements for confirming U.S. employment eligibility. Some Republican lawmakers worried a previous version would have made hiring immigrant farm workers too cumbersome.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) – Republican former President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the severity of a potential U.S. government default, saying the consequences of a failure by Congress to raise the nation’s debt limit “could be maybe nothing.”

Most economists warn that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by June 1, when the U.S. Treasury says the government will start to run out of money to meet its obligations, will trigger a catastrophic economic recession with the loss of millions of jobs.

Democratic President Joe Biden and Republicans who control the House of Representatives are negotiating raising the debt limit, which is a mechanism to allow the government to pay obligations Congress has already incurred, such as payments on foreign debt and monthly Social Security checks.

In a televised CNN town hall appearance, Trump said Congress should claw back money allocated in Biden’s domestic spending legislation. “If they don’t … you’ll have to default,” Trump said. He added consequences of a default could merely lead to “a bad week or a bad day.”

Republicans are insisting on massive spending cuts before they agree to pass a debt ceiling increase. Biden so far is insisting on a “clean” measure without conditions.

Economists say threats by some Republicans not to raise the debt ceiling by June 1 is a dangerous game of Russian roulette with the U.S. and global economy, as a failure to raise it will trigger the first U.S. default in the country’s history.

The debt limit was raised three times without a fight during Trump’s four years as president, a period when the national debt also exploded because of his tax cuts.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Howard Goller)

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