McCarthy: We can find 'common ground' with Biden over U.S. debt ceiling

President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held initial talks on Wednesday about raising U.S. government borrowing limits in a first test of how the two will work together, with both sides agreeing to talk more.

The White House said after the meeting that Biden told McCarthy he was eager to work with Republicans "in good faith." McCarthy said the two men could find common ground. But, as expected, there was no sign of an immediate breakthrough.

"The president and I had a good first meeting," McCarthy told reporters after the more-than-hour-long meeting. He said the two men shared their perspectives with each other. "I think at the end of the day, we can find common ground," he said.

The Democratic president and Republicans, who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November's elections, are locked in a standoff over raising the federal government's $31.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling. Failing to do so would put the world's largest economy on a path to default.

"President Biden made clear that, as every other leader in both parties in Congress has affirmed, it is their shared duty not to allow an unprecedented and economically catastrophic default," the White House said in a statement. "It is not negotiable or conditional."