2023-05-28 05:58:44
The White House and the Republicans reached an “agreement in principle” this Saturday to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the United States from going into default, President Joe Biden and the leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, confirmed.
“I just got off the phone with the president. After he wasted his time and refused to negotiate for monthswe have reached an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people“, advanced McCarthy in a message through social networks.
Minutes later, in a brief appearance before the press, the Republican assured that the agreement includes a “historic” reduction in public spending and reforms that “will lift people out of poverty and incorporate them into the labor force.”
He also stressed that it does not contain new taxes or new government programs.
“We still have a lot of work to do tonight to finish all the text” of the agreement, warned the leader of the Republicans in Congress, who did not want to answer questions from the press because he first wanted to tell lawmakers from his party the details. of the pre-agreement, he said.
McCarthy explained that legislators they will continue with the drafting of the bill tonight. After this, he will consult with the White House, he will speak with Biden “tomorrow afternoon” before publishing the text, which will be voted on Wednesday the 31st.
An hour after McCarthy’s appearance, President Biden published a statement in which he acknowledged that the principle of agreement contains concessions from the Democrats, but maintains the “key priorities” of his government.
“The agreement represents a compromise, which means that not everyone gets what they want. That is the responsibility of governing,” he said.
However, he added, the agreement “protects” his “key priorities” and “the legislative achievements of Democrats in Congress.”
“It’s an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for workers and growing the economy for everyone,” Biden added.
The president confirmed that the negotiating teams of both parties have the task of finalizing the legislative text, which will be voted on in both the House of Representatives (controlled by Republicans) and the Senate (controlled by Democrats). “I strongly urge both chambers to pass the deal immediately,” she concluded.
The pre-deal comes a day after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen updated her estimate of the deadline after which the country could face default to June 5.
The debt limit is the total amount of money the United States Government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt , tax refunds and other payments.
every so often, The United States is facing default on the national debt because, unlike other countries, the Government can only issue debt up to the limit established by Congress, which has the power to raise that ceiling as it sees fit.
The country reached its legal debt limit of 31.4 trillion dollars on January 19, which led the Treasury Department to resort since then to extraordinary measures to pay the bills.
When the agreement is finalized and approved in the chambers will put an end to a period of strong confrontation between Democrats and Republicanswho had been unsuccessfully trying to reach positions on this issue for months.
Biden has been blunt in these months to make concessions, accusing “the MAGA Republicans in Congress”, in reference to the most radical legislators of the party who follow former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), of threatening the country’s progress with lawsuits. “completely” unacceptable.
However, the negotiations intensified in recent weeks, given the proximity of the deadline, an urgency that led President Biden to return before his trip to Japan for the G7 summit.
Institutions such as the Federal Reserve (Fed) have warned these months about the risks of not raising the debt ceiling. Failure to do so, recently warned its president, Jerome Powell, “would be unprecedented” and “we would be in unknown territory” whose consequences “would be very uncertain.”
International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also been warning about the urgent need for Congress to act since, failing to do so, there will be “serious repercussions” both for the US economy and globally.
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