• Democrat Sens. Tim Kaine and Joe Manchin each made comments on Sunday talk shows suggesting President Biden should talk GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about Congress raising the debt ceiling, after the White House having said for days it won’t negotiate.
• The U.S. technically last week reached it has already reached its debt limit, forcing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellon to use “extraordinary measures,” to keep the country from defaulting on its loans. But only Congress can raise the country’s debt ceiling.
• Kaine, of Virginia, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that  Biden’s recent invitation to McCarthy to discuss the debt ceiling is a “good thing.”
• “I’m very, very happy that the president and Speaker McCarthy are talking. That’s really positive,” he also said.
• The White House wants Congress to raise the ceiling without implementing spending cuts.
• “I think it is a mistake,” Manchin said to CNN’s “State of the Union” about Biden have yet to negotiate with McCarthy as the default deadline, perhaps the summer, nears. “We have to negotiate. This is a democracy. We have a two-party system.”

Tagged: Capitol Hill