President Joe Biden is meeting Wednesday with some of the nation's top CEOs to put more pressure on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to cave in the current debt ceiling stand-off.
Biden has invited bank leaders including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Citi's Jane Fraser and Bank of America's Brian Moynihan to the afternoon meeting with Treasury Secretray Janet Yellen, adviser Cedric Richmond and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Biden and Senate Democrats are trying to get around a Republican filibuster threat and pass the same bill that got through the House last week, which suspends the debt ceiling until December 2022, after the midterm elections.
President Joe Biden wil meet with bank executives on Wednesday to pressure Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to cave in the current debt ceiling stand-off. On Tuesday night he said it was a 'real possibility' that Democrats scrapped the filibuster on debt ceiling bills
They have until October 18 to pass something, before the U.S. falls off a financial cliff.
The president is also hosting Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes, the president of the National Association of REALTORS Charlie Oppler, AARP's CEO Jo Ann Jenkins, the President and CEO of Nasdaq Adena Friedman, Deloitte's global CEO Punit Renjen and Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger, the White House told DailyMail.com.
Jenkins will likely warn about the cost to seniors if Americans begin missing Social Security payments.
The meeting will be held both in-person and virtually, the White House said.
'These executives represent some of America’s best-known companies and industries, and they understand firsthand that a default would be economically devastating – risking millions of jobs and throwing our country into recession, and causing lasting harm to America’s economic strength by threatening the dollar’s status as the currency the world relies on and downgrading the U.S.’s credit rating,' a White House official said, previewing the meeting.
Until now, Biden hasn't tried to use big business to go up against Republicans.
All week, McConnell has remained resistant, saying Democrats need to pass a debt bill using only Democratic votes, using the more complex process of reconciliation.
Biden and Democrats have shot back that the reconciliation process takes too long and is also too risky.
Instead of going that route, Senate Democrats are now thinking about nuking the filibuster for bills dealing with the debt ceiling.
'Oh I think that's a real possibility,' Biden told reporters about the plan as he returned from his trip to Michigan Tuesday evening.
Biden said earlier Tuesday, as he departed Lansing, Michigan, that he planned to talk to McConnell - though he didn't say when.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (left) and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan (right) are among the business leaders meeting Wednesday with Biden
Republican swing votes, Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, have already said they won't cross the aisle to assist Democrats.
Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Air Force One Tuesday that the White House didn't have a specific date or deadline figured out for when they'd push Democrats to switch gears and pursue a reconciliation bill in order to avoid an economic catastrophe.
'I don't have a date for you at this time,' she told DailyMail.com.
'We're just going to continue to be very, very clear,' she said. 'Like the president said yesterday, you know, we have to take a step back and look at how this has been done 80 times, that it's been a bipartisan fashion ... three times during the Trump administration.'
'And we can't play political football right now. We can't play politics. We have to get this done for the American people, and that is the most important thing,' Jean-Pierre added.
McConnell and Republicans are unlikely to be convinced by the CEOs as there's still a rift between the party and some of the companies.
Intel was among the businesses that said it wouldn't give money to any Republican who voted against the certification of the 2020 election.
Nasdaq's PAC paused donations to Republicans for several months.
And Citi and JPMorgan Chase paused all political contributions after the January 6 Capitol attack.
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