President Joe Biden celebrated the agreement with the Republican Party to raise the debt ceiling and announced that he will ratify it this Saturday, after the two houses of Congress have given the go-ahead this past week.
“This is vital. It is essential for the progress we have had in recent years,” said the Democratic president during a speech broadcast from the White House.
With Biden’s ratification, the United States will avoid the suspension of payments that would have been made on Monday, June 5, if Congress had not reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, which sets the limit to the money that the country can borrow and it can only be raised or suspended by legislative action.
Despite the fact that the measure contemplates some caps on public spending in areas such as health, education, justice or environmental protection, Biden assured that the suspension of payments “would have been catastrophic”, and would have sent the country to “a recession”.
In addition, the US executive congratulated himself for having reached a bipartisan agreement when many in Washington doubted that it was possible due to the division between the blocs, and he assured that the social pillars of his Administration, such as Social Security or medical benefits for the elderly, they will remain intact.
“No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed,” said the Democrat.
The agreement to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for some ceilings on public spending was reached over the weekend, in a negotiation against time between the White House and the Republicans in the Lower House, led by Kevin McCarthy.
Despite the fact that it was finally able to pass quickly in both chambers, some Republican senators threatened to delay the process, considering that the agreement did not do enough to ensure a sufficient budget for Defense.
Finally, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, promised to allow the Defense budget to be increased more than what is contemplated in the agreement itself in exchange for proceeding with the vote.
The measure suspends the debt ceiling for the next two years, until after the November 2024 presidential elections. Specifically, it suspends the current debt limit of $31.4 trillion dollars until January 1, 2025.
With information from EFE
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