House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blasted President Joe Biden after congressional leadership discussed a potential debt ceiling increase on Tuesday, a meeting which came after more than three months of refusal from the White House to negotiate.

The debt ceiling, a policy established by Congress that prevents the federal government from spending beyond a predetermined national debt limit of $31.4 trillion, surpassed the threshold earlier this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned last week that the nation could face a default as soon as the first day of June unless the debt limit is suspended or increased.

White House officials have repeatedly asserted that Republican lawmakers are risking a recession by insisting that any amendment to the debt ceiling should be accompanied by meaningful spending cuts or limits upon future expenditures. Biden and McCarthy continued the negotiations launched in February with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

McCarthy delivered a scathing statement to reporters about the outcome of the negotiation, saying that he “did not find progress” in the discussions with Biden and revealing that congressional leadership will resume talks on Friday.

“President Biden has played political games and ignored the obvious glaring issue ahead of him,” McCarthy commented in the readout. “Now, our nation is at the precipice of defaulting for the first time in history. The House passed a plan that would responsibly raise the debt ceiling, meaning Republicans have done our part. The House Republican plan limits government spending, saves taxpayer money, grows the economy, and simply authorizes spending levels that the United States was operating off of five months ago. It’s time for President Biden to come to the negotiating table or risk bumbling into default.”

Biden, on the other hand, said in a statement that he found the meeting “productive” and countered that he had offered to negotiate once Republicans unveiled their budget framework, a move which did not occur until last month.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of conservatives without which McCarthy is unable to pass legislation due to the narrow Republican majority in the House, have said they would vote to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for a framework that returns expenditures to fiscal year 2022 levels, increase the debt limit only for the next year, and cap annual spending growth at 1% over the next decade. The budget proposal unveiled by McCarthy mirrored the framework and successfully passed through the House two weeks ago.

“The only thing we’re asking is that next year we spend the same amount of money we spent five months ago,” McCarthy added in his remarks, noting that the debt ceiling talks were the first time all four congressional leaders have met with Biden since the new Congress started earlier this year. “Unfortunately in this meeting I heard nothing new.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that “the only practical path to avoid default is for Congress to suspend the debt limit without conditions” because of the “limited time” before the potential default. Other senior lawmakers, including House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA), have noted that time is only limited because of the failure to negotiate a compromise on spending and budget priorities, while Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) previously described the situation as “a deficiency of leadership” from Biden.

The Consumer Price Index rose 4.9% between April 2022 and April 2023, marking a continued decline from elevated inflation even as higher price levels continue to constrain household budgets.

The month-to-month increase of 0.4% was in line with analyst expectations, while core inflation, which factors out the more volatile food and energy categories, also rose 0.4% and in line with expectations. Food prices were flat and energy prices rose 0.6% while shelter prices, one of the largest contributors to the overall month-to-month increase, rose 0.4%, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the slight decrease from the 5.0% headline inflation recorded in March 2023, food and electricity prices have increased 7.7% and 8.4%, respectively, between April 2022 and April 2023. Real wages, which consider the effect of inflation on pay increases, fell 0.7% between March 2022 and March 2023, according to more data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest inflation data comes as officials at the Federal Reserve increased the target federal funds rate in an effort to slow price level increases, a policy regime which raises the cost of borrowing funds for consumers and businesses, thereby lowering inflation, but dampening overall economic activity. Federal Reserve policymakers introduced a quarter-point rate hike last week, marking a continued slowdown from previous rate hikes and reflecting caution as the financial sector reels from the collapse of three medium-sized banks.

Officials at the Federal Reserve have broadly targeted a 2.0% inflation rate and maximum employment over the past four decades. Even amid the elevated price level environment and macroeconomic constraints such as a bottlenecked supply chain, the labor market has been a relative bright spot in the economy: unemployment was charted at 3.4% last month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday. Low labor force participation, on the other hand, has worsened inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints as businesses increase wages to fill their payrolls and seek to retain more workers.

Economic growth in the United States slowed to a 1.1% annualized rate in the first quarter, marking a significant decline from previous quarters, according to an advance estimate released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Federal Reserve officials have also concluded that the present instability in the financial system warrants a recession forecast for the latter portion of the year, followed by a predicted recovery over the subsequent two years.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly asserted that his policies are responsible for easing price levels in some product categories, even as inflation remains between three times and four times higher than levels seen at the start of his administration. “We are making progress in the fight against inflation,” he commented in one statement released in April. “The fight against inflation isn’t over, and every day my administration is working to give families more breathing room.”

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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen each previously asserted that rising price levels were a temporary result of the demand increases that followed worldwide government lockdowns. Yellen admitted last year that she was incorrect due to “unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices.”