Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy has ordered a halt on the discussions to end the debt ceiling crisis until President Biden returns from the G7 conference being held in Hiroshima, Japan, the Financial Times reports. A team assigned by the President has been working with House staffers to hammer out a deal, but McCarthy needs to earn some “hard ass” points with the far right fringe of the GOP caucus, so he must appear to be tough.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to move forward until the president can get back in the country,” McCarthy said apparently unaware Biden knows how to delegate and can be reached via multiple methods of communication. Biden is expected to return to Washington, DC around 11 p.m. ET.