Expectations Managed Ahead Of Biden-McCarthy Meeting

15:15 ET 20:15 GMT: Republicans and Democrats are managing expectations for a breakthrough when President Biden holds a key meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the White House today, the first marker in what is expected to be a months-long showdown over the debt ceiling and government spending.

• A top White House official warned yesterday that the meeting would be “boring,” and merely the “first meeting of a hundred to follow.”
• Focus is on when McCarthy will release a House GOP budget which could be expected around the time Biden releases his presidential budget on March 9.
• Democrats are likely to maintain a rigid position opposed to negotiating until then with the expectation that a GOP budget with heavy cuts to defence spending will be unpopular with Republican voters.
• The White House wrote in a memo to McCarthy yesterday that the GOP must release a budget, “so that the American people can see how House Republicans plan to reduce the deficit."
• McCarthy is expected to give a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting.