President Joe Biden may cut short a planned trip to Asia after the G7 summit in Japan this week, the White House said Tuesday as he scrambles with Republican leaders to avoid a US debt default.
Biden will leave Wednesday for the summit in Hiroshima as planned, but he is reconsidering plans to travel later to Papua New Guinea and Australia, the White House said.
Biden is meeting later on Tuesday with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy for talks on the high-profile issue of raising the US debt ceiling so the government doesn’t run out of money.
The Treasury has warned of “catastrophic” consequences if the US runs out of money to pay its bills, which would make it unable to pay federal workers and cause a possible spike in interest rates with knock-on effects for businesses and depositors — and financial markets around the world.
Biden will definitely attend a meeting of the world’s wealthiest democracies in Hiroshima, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, but the rest of the trip is uncertain.
He emphasized that Biden can multitask.
“You can travel overseas,” Kirby said, “and still work with congressional leaders to do the right thing, raise the debt, avoid default so that America’s credibility at home and abroad is preserved.” “
