In the United States, the Republicans condition the raising of the debt ceiling on budget cuts

2023-04-27 02:07:12

Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of Representatives, speaks to reporters just after the Republican majority passed a U.S. debt ceiling bill, in Washington, April 26, 2023. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP

The Republicans who dominate the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday evening, April 26, for a bill which raises the American debt ceiling but demands, in return, drastic budget cuts and the unraveling of energy and environmental measures contained in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed in the summer of 2022.

This text has no chance of being adopted by the Senate, dominated by the Democrats, and Joe Biden has promised to oppose his veto, but this vote could launch a serious negotiation on the raising of the ceiling of the American debt.

Set at 31,400 billion dollars (28,450 billion euros), this should be reached in June. Since the early 1960s, the US debt ceiling has been raised by Congress 78 times. Regularly, the case turns into a psychodrama, opposing the Democratic presidents (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama) and the House of Representatives when it is dominated by the Republicans, sometimes leading to the closure of the federal administration. The disaster – a default by the US Treasury – never happened, but relations are so strained in Washington that no one wants to rule out an accident.

Read also: A default on US debt would cause “a global financial crisis”, says Janet Yellen

During the day, Joe Biden had repeated that he refused any conditionality for raising this famous ceiling. “I will be happy to meet [Kevin] McCarthy [le président républicain de la Chambre des représentants], but not on whether or not to raise the debt ceilinghe declared, Wednesday, during a press conference at the White House. It’s not negotiable. » The Biden administration had estimated on Tuesday that this text was “an irresponsible attempt to extract extreme concessions from the United States simply paying the bills it owes”.

Imposing a political agenda on Joe Biden

She drove the point home after the vote: “In our history, we have never defaulted on our debt or failed to pay our bills. Congressional Republicans must act immediately and unconditionally to avert a default and ensure that America’s credit is not put at risk. It’s their job”, demanded White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. She denounced a bill that “cuts veterans’ health care, education, meals-on-wheels and public safety, takes health care away from millions of Americans, and sends manufacturing jobs overseas as they fight for extend Trump’s tax cuts to the wealthiest and most profitable corporations.

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