According to several American media, the teams of Democratic President Joe Biden and those of the Republican boss of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, have already agreed on some broad lines.

The agreement, essential for conservatives to agree to vote in Congress to raise the US public debt ceiling, would freeze some spending, but without touching defense and veterans budgets, report for example the New York Times or the Washington Post.

It would postpone the risk of default for two years, until the next presidential election.

This unprecedented scenario of a bankruptcy of the world's leading power could occur after June 1 for lack of political agreement and vote in the Senate as in the House of Representatives.

The United States would then find itself unable to repay its creditors, which is the definition of a default, but also to pay the salaries of certain civil servants and social benefits.

The challenge, in addition to avoiding a financial, social and economic cataclysm, is to allow each side to limit the damage at the political level.

Kevin McCarthy, who needs to assert his stature as speaker of the House, could boast of having injected more fiscal discipline, while the Democrats would claim to have protected social benefits or major investment projects.

"Opposing visions"

The US president, campaigning for re-election, explained Thursday that "two opposing visions" were at work in these discussions.

He posed as a champion of social and fiscal justice, demanding that the wealthy and corporations "pay their fair share" of taxes, painting Republicans as the party of the wealthy and Wall Street.

But according to the press, the 80-year-old Democrat would have given up, in negotiations with the Republicans, to increase as much as he wanted the means devoted to the fight against tax fraud.

If an agreement is reached, it will still have to be passed by the Senate, narrowly controlled by the Democrats, and by the House of Representatives, on which the conservatives have a fragile majority. And this will not be an easy task.

On the one hand, because the parliamentary calendar is constrained: many elected officials have returned home across the United States for a break of several days on the occasion of the extended weekend of "Memorial Day".

On the other hand, because some progressives within the Democratic Party, as well as some elected representatives of the Republican Party, have already threatened not to ratify a text that would make too many concessions to the opposing camp.

Republican Senator Mike Lee promised Thursday that he would "use all procedural tools at (his) disposal to prevent a debt ceiling agreement that does not contain substantial spending reforms. I'm afraid we're going in that direction."

Democratic senators have asked the president to rely on the 14th amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits questioning the "solvency" of the United States, to pass in force and continue to issue debt even if no agreement was reached. To which the White House now opposes a categorical refusal, to the chagrin of the progressive camp.

In other words, Joe Biden and McCarthy will have to play at the center to rally the most parliamentarians from both camps, an exercise that has become excessively difficult in a country where political cleavages have widened markedly in recent years.

© 2023 AFP