President Biden on Saturday brushed off noisy statements issued by both sides in the debt and spending talks gripping Washington, dismissing them as little more than the posturing typical of any negotiation and expressing confidence that he will still be able to strike a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Speaking on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Biden told reporters that he was not worried about the debt talks back home. “Not at all,” he said. He later added, “I still believe we’ll be able to avoid a default and get something decent done.”
Mr. Biden’s comments came after a tumultuous day of thrust and parry carried out across the oceans. Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday abruptly declared a “pause” in talks aimed at raising the debt ceiling to avoid a national default while adopting ways to reduce the deficit, only to send his negotiators back to the table later in the day. But that session broke up after only an hour, and the White House then released a blistering statement accusing Republicans of sticking to “extreme MAGA priorities.”
The president essentially called all of that just theater that no one should take too seriously. “It goes in stages,” he told reporters during a meeting with Australia’s prime minister. “And what happens is the first meetings weren’t all that progressive, the second ones were, the third one was, and then what happens is the carriers” — meaning the negotiators — “go back to principals and say this...
Dish Wireless LLC agreed to pay roughly $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, common law, and the Communications Act of 1934 relating to claims submitted to Fed...