Debt ceiling negotiations are locked on a classic problem that has vexed, divided and disrupted Washington before: Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy want to roll back federal government spending, while President Joe Biden and other Democrats do not.Time is short to strike a deal before a deadline as soon as June 1, when the Treasury says the government risks running out of cash to pay its bills. Negotiators are expected to convene Wednesday for another round of talks as frustration mounts. The political standoff is edging the country closer to a crisis, roiling financial markets and threatening the global economy."They've got to acknowledge that we're spending too much," said McCarthy.Cheered on by a hard-charging conservative House majority that hoisted him to power, McCarthy, R-Calif., was not swayed by a White House counter-offer to freeze spending instead. "A freeze is not going to work," McCarthy said.Video above: Why the United States has a debt ceilingThe longstanding Washington debate over the size and scope of the federal government now has just days to be resolved. Failure to raise the nation's debt ceiling, now at $31 trillion, would risk a potentially chaotic federal default, almost certain to inflict economic turmoil at home and abroad.From the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was "ridiculous" to suggest Biden wasn't acting with urgency after Republicans complained about the pace. "He wants to see this done as soon as possible," she said.Dragging into a third week, the negotiations over raising the nation's debt limit were never supposed to arrive at this point.The White House insisted early on it was unwilling to barter over the need to pay the nation's bills, demanding that Congress simply lift the ceiling as it has done many times before with no strings attached.But the newly elected speaker visited Biden at the Oval Office in February, urging the president to come to the negotiating table on a budget package that would reduce spending and the nation's ballooning deficits in exchange for the vote to allow future debt."I told the president Feb. 1," McCarthy recounted. "I said, Mr. President, you're not going to raise taxes. You've got to spend less money than was spent this year."Negotiations are focused on finding agreement on a 2024 budget year limit. Republicans have set aside their demand to roll back spending to 2022 levels, but say that next year's government spending must be less than it is now. But the White House instead offered to freeze spending at current 2023 numbers."We are holding firm to the speaker's red line," said a top Republican negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana. "Which is that we will not do a deal unless it spends less money than we're spending this year."By sparing defense and some veterans accounts from reductions, the Republicans would shift the bulk of spending reductions to other federal programs, an approach that breaks a tradition in Congress of budget cap parity.Graves said there were still "significant gaps" between his side and the White House.Agreement on that topline spending level is vital. It would enable McCarthy to deliver spending restraints for conservatives while not being so severe that it would chase off the Democratic votes that would be needed in the divided Congress to pass any bill.But what, if anything, Democrats would get if they agreed to deeper spending cuts than Biden's team has proposed is uncertain.Asked what concessions the Republicans were willing to give, McCarthy quipped, "We're going to raise the debt ceiling."The White House has continued to argue that deficits can be reduced by ending tax breaks for wealthier households and some corporations, but McCarthy said he told the president at their February meeting that raising revenue from tax hikes is off the table.The negotiators are now also debating the duration of a 1% cap on annual spending growth going forward, with Republicans dropping their demand for a 10-year cap to six years, but the White House offering only one year, for 2025.Typically, the debt ceiling has been lifted for the duration of a budget deal, and in this negotiation the White House is angling for a two-year agreement that would push past the presidential elections.Past debt ceiling talks have produced budget agreements in which both parties have won some concessions in a give and take. Both have wanted to raise the debt limit to prevent a economy-shattering federal default.Graves explained the Republican position this time around. Since Biden already boosted federal spending in significant ways with his COVID-19 rescue package, Inflation Reduction Act and other bills, "they've already got theirs.""We're willing to give them an increase in debt ceiling. That's what they're getting," he said.And yet, the Republicans are pushing additional priorities as the negotiators focus on the $100 billion-plus difference between the 2022 and 2023 spending plans as a place to cut.Republicans want to beef up work requirements for government aid to recipients of food stamps, cash assistance and the Medicaid health care program that the Biden administration says would impact millions of people who depend on assistance.All sides have been eyeing the potential for the package to include a framework to ease federal regulations and speed energy project developments. They are all but certain to claw back some $30 billion in unspent COVID-19 funds now that the pandemic emergency has officially lifted.The White House has countered by keeping defense and nondefense spending flat next year, which would save $90 billion in the 2024 budget year and $1 trillion over 10 years.Video below: President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered remarks from the Oval Office on MondayThe House speaker promised lawmakers he will abide by the rule to post any bill for 72 hours before voting, making any action doubtful until the weekend — just days before the potential deadline. The Senate would also have to pass the package before it could go to Biden's desk to be signed.McCarthy faces a hard-right flank in his own party that is likely to reject any deal, and that has led some Democrats to encourage Biden to resist any compromise with the Republicans and simply invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own, an unprecedented and legally fraught action the president has resisted for now.___Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking, Chris Megerian, Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden and congressional leaders will likely resume talks on Tuesday at the White House over the debt limit, the president said Sunday, as the nation continues to edge closer to its legal borrowing authority with no agreement in sight.The meeting was initially supposed to be Friday, but was abruptly postponed so staff-level talks could continue before Biden and the four congressional leaders huddled for a second time. Administration and congressional officials said Sunday that a meeting has not been finalized, although Tuesday was the likeliest option as Biden returns to Washington on Monday and is scheduled to leave for the Group of 7 summit in Japan on Wednesday.Biden did not detail much progress in the talks, but said he remained hopeful that an agreement could be reached with Republicans to avoid what would be an unprecedented debt default, which could trigger a financial catastrophe."I remain optimistic because I'm a congenital optimist," Biden told reporters while out for a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. "But I really think there's a desire on their part as well as ours to reach an agreement. I think we'll be able to do it."Video above: Pausing a bike ride to talk to reporters, President Joe Biden said he remains optimistic on getting debt ceiling settledAides said talks had continued throughout the weekend. But at least publicly, there was little indication that either the White House or House Republicans had budged from their initial positions. Biden has called on lawmakers to lift the debt limit without preconditions, warning that the nation's borrowing authority should not be used to impose deep spending cuts and other conservative policy demands."We've not reached the crunch point yet," Biden told reporters Saturday before flying to his beach home for the weekend. "There's real discussion about some changes we all could make. We're not there yet."On Sunday, senior administration officials said the talks among staff had so far been productive after Biden and the leaders — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — ended their first meeting last Tuesday without a breakthrough.Video below: Here are some possible impacts if the U.S. defaults on its debtThe president described that Oval Office session as "productive" even though McCarthy said later he "didn't see any new movement" toward resolving the stalemate. White House and congressional aides have been in talks since Wednesday."The staff is very engaged. I would characterize the engagement as serious, as constructive," Lael Brainard, head of the White House's National Economic Council, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."McCarthy has insisted on using the threat of defaulting on the nation's debts to wrangle spending changes, arguing that the federal government can't continue to spend money at the pace it is now. The national debt now stands at $31.4 trillion.An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.The Treasury Department has said the government could exhaust the ability to pay its bills as early as June 1. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office gave a similar warning Friday, saying there was a "significant risk" of default sometime in the first two weeks of next month.But federal estimates still remain in flux.Video below: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns of "economic calamity" if debt ceiling impasse is unresolved The CBO noted Friday that if the cash flow at the Treasury and the "extraordinary measures" that the department is now using can continue to pay for bills through June 15, the government can probably finance its operations through the end of July. That's because the expected tax revenues that will come in mid-June and other measures will give the federal government enough cash for at least a few more weeks."Ultimately the stakes are, the United States has never defaulted on its debt," Wally Adeyemo, the deputy treasury secretary, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "And we can't."And Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told ABC's "This Week": "I think defaulting is not the right path to go down. So I am an eternal optimist.''He added, "this is always a game we play, every Congress, you know, in daring each other to jump off the cliff. It's a dangerous game."