Biden and McCarthy’s rocky debt ceiling negotiations. Early this year, Democratic President Joe Biden labeled the lengthy story a national shame and had some fun.

“I’ve got good news for you,” Biden told a reporter following a Kentucky rally. “They just elected you speaker.”

McCarthy also criticized Biden during months of tense debt ceiling negotiations. McCarthy mocked Biden’s 80-year-old age as he demanded a March meeting to discuss raising the debt ceiling.
I’d deliver White House lunch. I’ll make soft food if he wants. No matter. McCarthy told reporters, “Anything to meet.”

In recent weeks, both men have ceased the put-downs and reached an agreement that will lead to a congressional vote to suspend the U.S. debt ceiling and prevent a default that would wreck the economy.

Like their arrangement, the two men’s relationship was ugly but effective.
“I think he negotiated with me in good faith,” Biden said of McCarthy on Sunday. “He delivered. He pledged. He delivered.”

Democrats detest the arrangement because it curbs federal spending and makes poor people work for food handouts. In addition, it keeps much of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and delays the next debt ceiling confrontation until 2025, which Republicans despise.

As part of his efforts to re-center the country, former Delaware senator Joe Biden has urged his fellow Democrats to pursue cross-party solutions.

He compromised after initially demanding the debt ceiling be raised without negotiations.

A 58-year-old Californian, McCarthy represents the “Tea Party” and Trump’s contentious Republican politics.
He rose through the party ranks advocating for corporate tax cuts and government spending. He now leads an unruly Republican Party in which radical lawmakers have threatened to remove him as Speaker unless he takes a strong stance with the White House.

McCarthy expected that he and Biden would find common ground and meet again after their Feb. 1 White House meeting.

A three-month standoff occurred.

Biden declined to negotiate because the White House believed investors and business organizations would convince Republicans to back off their threat to default.

McCarthy and Biden accused each other of endangering the U.S. economy. McCarthy lamented his White House exile.

“The White House never contacted me. The administration neveThen called me. Then, at a March Republican retreat, the House speaker told reporters he contacted them.

McCarthy continued to portray the president as a prisoner of “socialists” bent on default once discussions began.

“He’d rather be the first president in history to default on the debt than to risk upsetting the radical socialists who are calling the shots for Democrats right now,” McCarthy tweeted last week.

Last week, he said, “These are highly intelligent, highly respected on both sides.” They know numbers, work, and work.”

House Republican Patrick McHenry, a crucial negotiator, said Biden and McCarthy were “two Irish guys that don’t drink” but worked well.

“What I saw in the Oval Office yesterday was a willingness to engage with each other in a sincere way – air disagreements, listen,” McHenry said after one meeting last week.

Biden’s allies believe Biden and McCarthy have a friendly, businesslike relationship and that Biden understands McCarthy’s struggle to lead the Republican Party’s factions.

Both men were close to their predecessors, which may hurt their relationship.

“Who I think will be considered the greatest Speaker in the history of this country,” Biden remarked at his Feb. 7 State of the Union address of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

McCarthy frequently flew on Air Force One during Trump’s presidency and supported him.

He was one of 147 Republicans who voted to overturn Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump’s election fraud charges, but he later recognized Biden as president.

He chastised Trump for failing to control his supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but he keeps in touch.