President Joe Biden might cut short his planned tour of Asia after the G7 summit in Japan this week, the White House said Tuesday as it negotiates with Republican leaders to avoid a US debt default.
Biden will leave Wednesday for the summit in Hiroshima as planned, but is reevaluating plans to travel afterward to Papua New Guinea and Australia, the White House said.
Biden was meeting later Tuesday with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy for talks on the high stakes issue of raising the US debt ceiling so that the government does not run out of money.
The Treasury has warned of “catastrophic” consequences if the US runs out of cash to pay its bills, which would leave it unable to pay federal workers and trigger a likely surge in interest rates with knock-on effects for businesses and mortgage holders — and financial markets around the world.
Biden is definitely going to the meeting of the world’s richest democracies in Hiroshima, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby, but the rest of the trip is not certain.
He insisted Biden can multi-task.
“He can travel overseas,” Kirby said, “and also work with congressional leaders to do the right thing, raise the debt ceiling, avoid default so that the United States credibility here at home and overseas is preserved.”