Biden invites McCarthy to White House for debt talks as new default deadline looms June 1

President Biden reversed course Monday and invited House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders to the White House next week for talks, as the Treasury Department warned that the U.S. could default on some of its bills as early as June 1.

Underscoring the urgency of raising the nation’s debt limit, Mr. Biden called Mr. McCarthy in Israel, where the California Republican was leading a congressional delegation. The White House said they will meet on May 9.

The move was an abrupt change for the president, who has insisted that he wouldn’t negotiate with Mr. McCarthy and has complained that Republicans are trying to “ransom” spending cuts in return for raising the borrowing limit.

The White House statement didn’t say specifically that the president is willing to discuss a trade-off of spending cuts in exchange for increasing the debt limit. The brief announcement said only that Mr. Biden also invited House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat; Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, for the high-stakes talks.