Biden, McCarthy in different worlds on debt standoff

By JOSH BOAK, SEUNG MIN KIM and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Washington slow-walks toward a crisis over the national debt, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are talking to two very different Americas. The GOP congressional leader kicked off the week by heading to Wall Street to outline his conditions for raising the country’s borrowing limit. The Democratic president plans to offer his rebuttal on Wednesday at a union hall in Maryland. He’s set to lambaste Republicans for “holding hostage” the country’s ability to pay its debts. The two men need to come together for the sake of the U.S. economy. But they’re playing out diametrically opposite strategies to different audiences, each wagering that they’ll win out in the end.