Biden, McCarthy debt ceiling meeting postponed, spending cuts on table

A debt limit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and top lawmakers that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed, and the leaders agreed to meet early next week, a White House spokesperson said on Thursday.

Aides from both sides have started to discuss ways to limit federal spending, as talks on raising the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default creep forward, people familiar with the discussions said.

"Staff will continue working and all the principals agreed to meet early next week," the spokesperson said.

The aides to Biden, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss raising the debt ceiling, the White House said earlier.

McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that the delay was not a sign of trouble in the talks but that he believed the staff negotiators who had been meeting this week needed to continue to talk before the principals met again.