McCarthy says no progress in debt ceiling talks with Biden: ‘I didn't see any new movement’

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he saw no new movement from President Joe Biden during a White House meeting on how to raise the government's borrowing limit, just weeks before the federal government is set to run out of cash to pay its bills by June 1.

"Everybody in this meeting reiterated the positions they were at. I didn't see any new movement," the speaker said. He said nothing has changed for Biden since they met on the same issue on Feb. 1.

McCarthy, R-Calif., said the next steps on the issue is for staff-level meetings to take place over the rest of the week and then to hold another meeting between Biden, McCarthy and other congressional leaders on Friday.

McCarthy defended the GOP position of insisting on spending cuts as a condition of raising the debt ceiling by pointing out that the House passed a debt limit bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, that accomplishes both while Senate Democrats have done nothing. Democrats have panned the House bill as a non-starter and want a clean debt ceiling increase.

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"I've done everything in my power to make sure we will not default," McCarthy said, arguing that both the White House and the Senate have not put forward any debt limit plans at all.

When asked if he saw progress in the meeting, the speaker said, "Well, the progress we made is, we were actually able to meet, so that's a difference."

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., again confirmed that he will take a backseat role, despite some speculation over whether he would step in at the last minute to help broker a deal.

"The United States is not going to default and never has, and it never will. However, elections have consequences. We now have divided government; we didn't have divided government last year," McConnell said.

"In 2019, I told President Trump – who was no fan of Speaker Pelosi – that they needed to work it out. Why? We had a divided government. The solution to this problem lies with two people: the president of the United States, who can sign a bill and deliver the members of his party to vote for it, and the speaker of the House," McConnell added.

"There is no sentiment in the Senate, certainly not 60 votes, for a clean debt ceiling," he said. "So, there must be an agreement. And the sooner the president and the speaker can reach an agreement, the sooner we can solve the problem."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's comments after the meeting confirmed that neither side budged on their prior stances.

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"Anyone who says my way or no way, and we're going to default, is not serving the country well," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "And I'm afraid that's what Speaker McCarthy is doing."

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Jeffries, D-N.Y., said there was an "honest" and "frank" discussion "about a path forward." But he also suggested that Democrats will at least take a look at some kind of spending plan amid the debt standoff.

"President Biden urged us to get together either later on today or tomorrow with our respective teams to have a discussion about a path forward around the budget and the appropriations process, and everyone agreed. That's progress," he said.