Debt ceiling talks stall, with GOP negotiator calling White House "unreasonable"
CBSN
Washington — Negotiations between representatives for the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over raising the debt ceiling have seemingly reached an impasse, with the lead GOP negotiator accusing the White House of being "unreasonable."
Leaving a meeting with White House negotiators at the Capitol on Friday, GOP Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana said there are "no updates" and "we're not there." Graves, who is representing McCarthy alongside Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, said the decision was made to take a pause "because it's just not productive" and "they're just unreasonable."
"The House passed a strong bill that had great savings in it, and it's responsible, and it puts us on a path to bend the curve. And until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, then we're not going to sit here and talk to ourselves. So that's what's going on," he said. Graves said he didn't know when the group might reconvene.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.