2023-05-31 14:57:15
The deal you are looking for raise the US debt limit, achieved after marathon negotiations between President Joe Biden and the Republicans, arrives this Wednesday at the House of Representatives for a vote which is forecast to be stormy.
Congress has a few days to spare before the country’s treasury runs out of liquidity, which will happen on June 5, according to an estimate by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
However, the terms of the agreement reached between Biden and the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, still require the approval of lawmakers, some of them fierce opponents of the initiative.
Without this, The United States risks a default or cessation of payments on its obligations, something unprecedented that can have catastrophic consequences for the economy.
On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee gave a first indication of the expected trend in voting on the bill, seven votes to six, with two Republicans and four Democrats against.
Now it is up to the congressmen of the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, to rule on Wednesday’s vote scheduled in plenary session before the Senate, with a Democratic majority.
(Also read: Joe Biden reached an agreement in principle with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling)
After arduous negotiations, Biden and the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.
Joe Biden “firmly” invited legislators on Tuesday to adopt this law, the result of the compromise that he himself negotiated. “Let’s keep moving forward in meeting our obligations and build the most powerful economy in human history,” the president said on Twitter.
For his part, the “speaker”, McCarthy, still has a tough task ahead of him: convince the Republican majority to adopt the new law so that it does not appear that it depends on the Democratic representatives.
This could be more difficult than expected as the opposition within the Republican Party appears to be outpacing the number of supporters of former President Donald Trump in the House.
(Can read: What is the ‘economic apocalypse’ that may fall on the United States?)
Criticism of the agreement
The agreement has been criticized by some of the most radical members of the Republican Party, who consider that the project does not achieve sufficient cuts in public spending.
Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman for the state of South Carolina, said Tuesday on Twitter that she will not vote in favor of the text. “This ‘agreement’ formalizes the expected record level of federal spending during the pandemic and makes it the baseline for future spending,” she criticized Mace.
Chip Roy, a Texas congressman from the Republican wing that supports Trump, called it a “bad deal” that “no Republican should vote for.” “We are going to continue the fight today and tomorrow no matter what happens,” Roy said.
Some Republicans are even considering a vote of no confidence to force Kevin McCarthy to resign as Speaker of the House.
(Besides: US government extends deadline for debt ceiling agreement)
The most radical Republicans believe that the project does not achieve enough cuts in public spending.
On the Democratic side, some are also skeptical. Rep. Ro Khanna, of California, said several of his colleagues oppose the budget cuts and “don’t know yet” how they’re going to vote.
The bill suspends the debt ceiling until 2025, long enough to get through the next 2024 presidential election. In exchange, some expenses are limited in order to keep them stable -except the military- in 2024 and limit their increase to 1% by 2025.
It also foresees a reduction of 10,000 million dollars in the allocated funds to the treasury to modernize and intensify controls.
(Keep reading: What would happen if the United States goes into ‘default’ and does not pay its debts?)
McCarthy’s office also said the agreement provides for the recovery of “billions of dollars of covid funds that were not spent” on the pandemic, without elaborating.
One of the points of contention includes the modifications to the conditions to benefit from some social aids, such as raising the working age from 49 to 54 for childless adults seeking food assistance, but removes this requirement for veterans and the homeless.
*With AFP and EFE
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