From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is The Daily.

I just finished, I thought a productive meeting with a Congressal leadership about the path

forward to make sure America does not default.

In a high stake showdown this week, President Biden and the leaders of Congress met face-to-face

in an attempt to avoid the U.S. defaulting on its debt for the first time in history.

America is not a deadbeat nation.

We pay our bills and avoid it in default as a basic duty of the United States Congress.

Today, my colleague Jim Tegersley, on how close the country now is to that financial

calamity and the radical step Biden might take to prevent it.

It's Friday, May 12th.

Jim, the federal government, as we all know, is in this rather frantic process of trying

to avoid the nation defaulting on its debts.

We talked on the show last week about how that poses this really big challenge for the

Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Of course, it also poses a really big challenge for President Biden.

Walk me through the debt limit dilemma from his point of view.

What does this look like if you're Biden?

On Tuesday, President Biden welcomes Speaker McCarthy and other congressional leaders from

both parties to the White House.

For all intents and purposes, this really was a negotiation.

The timing of these talks has everything to do with what's going on right now with the

debt limit.

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