Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren The debt ceiling fight is coming to a head. And it could force President JOE BIDEN to adopt the type of aggressively public-facing posture that he has largely shunned to date. With a June deadline for the government to hit its borrowing capacity, the White House has called for a meeting of the main four congressional leaders next week. But despite the gathering, there’s reason to be skeptical that a resolution is near. The White House insists the debt ceiling should be raised without concession and that any talk of deficit reduction remains the purview of budget negotiations. Republicans want direct engagement between Biden and House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY on the GOP debt ceiling bill that passed the House. That’s not a policy difference. It’s a tactical one, requiring a full blink from one of the sides. So how does Biden break the impasse? One way would be to rely on outside forces to help him through it. But as administration officials conveyed to us, and as reported by The Washington Post’s JEFF STEIN, there has been internal disappointment at how little pressure business leaders and nonprofit organizations have applied to congressional Republicans. But there is another way. Biden could apply that pressure himself. The bully pulpit’s effectiveness can be overstated — often dramatically — but it is a tool at his disposal. And as financial doomsday approaches, some Democrats believe he would be wise to more aggressively use it. “I would expect he will ramp it up,” said STEVE ISRAEL, the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As they get closer to the deadline and it becomes more clear what McCarthy's intentions and plans are, the White House will be increasingly vocal.” Few Democrats imagine Republicans buckling under the weight of Biden’s pressure, scurrying to cast a vote for a clean debt ceiling bill because of a rousing speech the president gave after walking over from the White House to their chamber. But there are ways to make it more painful for them. Longtime Democratic operative LIS SMITH suggested visiting the districts of frontline House Republicans to make the case that a default would be devastating for their constituents, placing the stakes in easy-to-understand terms (mortgage rates and car payments), and dispatching surrogates across the country. “It does not have to be done by the president though he has the biggest megaphone,” she said. “He has a talented VP and a bench full of stars he can use.” Biden’s predecessor, BARACK OBAMA, resorted to this very tactic in 2011 and 2013, holding press conferences at various junctures when talks broke down. He also conducted interviews where the direct appeal was to Wall Street to, more or less, start freaking out. The Biden approach has included some public facing chastisement of Republicans and warnings of the economic consequences of default. Speaking at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 the day after he launched his reelection campaign, he hammered McCarthy and declared: “No one should do anything to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the United States of America.” He took another whack at a small business event this week. But the full toolkit has not been deployed. The last interview he's given appears to be to JOE SCAROROUGH to talk about the Good Friday accords at the tail end of his trip to Ireland in mid-April. His most prominent interview prior to then was with actor (and former Obama administration staffer) KAL PENN, which aired on March 13. The last time Biden stepped foot in a district with a GOP member of Congress came before then. On Feb. 28, he went to Virginia Beach, Va. — repped by Rep. JEN KIGGANS (R-Va.) — to discuss health care and the budget contrast. (Vice President KAMALA HARRIS has made more recent stops in GOP districts). For a moment on Friday, that seemed poised to change in a big way, when Biden told the accompanying press corps that he would be holding a “major” press conference later that day. But that was just a verbal flub. He was referring to an interview he was taping with MSNBC’s STEPHANIE RUHLE, airing that night. “President Biden will continue to make clear to the American people and to Congress the economic catastrophe that default will have on working people, middle class, and seniors,” said White House spokesperson MICHAEL KIKUKAWA. "Up to 8 million jobs destroyed. A recession. Retirements threatened. All of that is avoidable if Congress acts — as the President will make clear in his meeting with Congressional leaders on Tuesday… and on the road.” The Ruhle sitdown is a step toward more engagement, and a strategic one at that given her fluency on matters of finance and Wall Street. But it’s still just one show, airing late on a Friday. Israel imagined there would be more in the not-to-distant future. “The crescendo,” he said, “occurs at the end.” MESSAGE US — Are you EDUARDO CISNEROS, intergovernmental affairs director for Covid-19? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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