Where the debt talks really stand

Thursday’s postponement of debt-ceiling talks between congressional leaders and President Joe Biden in favor of ongoing staff-level meetings left Washington with promising, if faint, evidence that a deal might be possible to avoid the calamity of a federal government default.

Still, the parties remain years apart, literally, on a potential deal as Speaker Kevin McCarthy continued to hit the White House for the delay.

“I have not seen from [them] a seriousness of the White House that they want to deal… He ignored us now for 100 days. He thought this problem would go away,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a press conference Thursday. “The White House didn’t cancel the meeting. All of the leaders decided it’s probably the best of our interest to let the staff meet again before we get back.”