President Joe Biden says he “feels good.” the debt ceiling and the budget deal negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the White House and congressional leaders work to secure passage this week in time to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default by the U.S. .
What you need to know
President Joe Biden says he ‘feels good’ about debt ceiling and budget deal negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Biden has been calling lawmakers ahead of this week’s congressional votes
The White House and congressional leaders are working to ensure passage in time to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avoid a US default.
Some far-right conservatives criticize the deal, while liberals decry new work requirements for older Americans in the food assistance program
Biden spent part of the Memorial Day holiday working the phones, calling lawmakers from both parties as the president does his part to deliver votes. Several far-right conservatives criticize the deal as falling short of the deep spending cuts they wanted, while liberals decry policy changes such as new work requirements for older Americans in the food assistance program.
A key test will come Tuesday afternoon, when the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the package and vote to send it to the full House for a vote expected Wednesday.
“I feel great,” Biden told reporters Monday as he left Washington for his home in Delaware.
“I’ve talked to a number of members,” he said, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a past partner in major bipartisan deals who largely sidelined this one.
“I talked to a lot of people and I feel good,” Biden said.
To those progressive Democrats who raised concerns about the package, the president had a simple message: “Talk to me.”
As lawmakers size up the 99-page bill, few are expected to be entirely satisfied with the final product. But Biden, a Democrat, and McCarthy, a Republican, are counting on getting majority support from the political center, a rarity in a divided Washington, to join the vote to avoid a catastrophic federal default.
Wall Street will open early Tuesday morning with its own assessment, as US financial markets that had been closed when the deal was reached over the weekend show their reaction to the outcome.
McCarthy acknowledged that the hard-fought compromise with Biden won’t be “100 percent of what everyone wants,” as he leads a slim House majority driven by right-wing conservatives.
Facing a possible pushback from his conservative ranks, the Republican speaker will have to rely on more than half of House Democrats and half of House Republicans to push through the debt ceiling package.
Overall, the package is a trade-off that would impose some spending cuts over the next two years along with a suspension of the debt limit until January 2025, pushing the volatile political issue beyond the next presidential election. Raising the debt limit, now $31 trillion, would allow the Treasury to continue borrowing to pay the nation’s already-incurred bills.
In addition, political issues are the ones that raise the most objections from legislators.
Liberal lawmakers fought hard but were unable to stop new work requirements for people aged 50 to 54 who receive government food assistance and who otherwise have no dependents. Republicans demanded strengthened work requirements as part of the deal, but some say the changes to the food stamp program aren’t enough.
Republicans also pushed to strengthen work requirements for health care and other aid; Biden refused to go along with it.
Questions are also being raised about an unexpected provision that essentially gives congressional approval to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a major natural gas project for Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., that many Democrats and others oppose.
At the same time, conservative Republicans, including those in the House Freedom Caucus, say the budget cut doesn’t go far enough to have their support.
“No one who claims to be a conservative could justify a YES vote,” tweeted Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.
This ‘deal’ is madness,” said MP Ralph Norman, RS.C. “He will not vote to bankrupt our country.”
The package was said to keep spending essentially flat for next year, while allowing increases for military and veterans accounts. It would limit growth to 1% by 2025.
The House Rules Committee has three members from the influential Freedom Caucus who may very well try to block the package from moving forward, forcing McCarthy to rely on Democrats on the panel to ensure the bill can be sent to the Chamber
The House aims to vote on Wednesday and send the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with McConnell are working for a quick passage by the end of the week.
Senators, who have remained largely on the sidelines during much of the negotiations between the president and the House speaker, began to insert themselves more forcefully into the debate.
Some senators are pushing for amendments to reshape the package from both the left and the right. This could require lengthy discussions that delay the final approval of the agreement.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia is “extremely disappointed” by the provision greenlighting the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline, his office said in a statement. He plans to introduce an amendment to eliminate the package provision.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina complained that increases in military spending are not enough. “I will use every power available in the Senate to have amendment votes to undo this defense catastrophe,” he tweeted.
But making any changes to the package at this stage seems highly unlikely with so little time to spare. Congress and the White House are scrambling to meet Monday’s deadline less than a week away. That’s when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US would run out of cash and face an unprecedented debt default without action.
A default would almost certainly crush the US economy and ripple around the world, as the world’s dependence on the stability of the US dollar and the country’s leadership would be called into question.
