President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are both declaring victory after the Senate voted Thursday night to send a bill to Biden’s desk that would suspend the debt limit and avert the nation’s first-ever default.
However, many members of their own parties aren’t celebrating.
What You Need To Know
- President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are both declaring victory after the Senate voted Thursday night to send a bill to Biden’s desk that would suspend the debt limit
- However, many members of their own parties aren’t celebrating
- Thirty-one of 48 Senate Republicans voted against the bill, while many members of both parties indiciated they reluctantly supported it to avoid economic disaster
- A handful of Democrats were calling Friday for ending Congress’ role in raising the debt ceiling
In a statement, Biden called the bill, which he’s expected to sign into law as early as Friday, “a big win for our economy and the American people,” while acknowledging that “No one gets everything they want in a negotiation.”
Biden will discuss the deal further during a national address Friday evening.
McCarthy, R-Calif., was crowing Friday morning about the bill’s passage.
On Twitter, he shared a video clip from February of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicting Congress would raise the debt limit without giving into any of the Republicans’ demands. “That prediction didn’t age well,” McCarthy wrote.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas appeared to be gloating, too, by posting links on Twitter to a pair of news analysis articles that gave McCarthy high marks for forcing Biden to the negotiating table and extracting concessions from the Democratic president aimed at reducing the budget deficit.
And Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., called the bill a “step in the right direction” because it recouped unspent COVID-19 response money, ended the pandemic-related moratorium on the collection of student loan payments and implemented energy permitting reforms while avoiding a default.
But overall, the bill McCarthy and his handpicked team negotiated wasn’t popular in the Senate. While two-thirds of GOP members in the House supported it, 31 of 48 present Senate Republicans voted against it.
“I simply cannot support a debt limit deal that continues the same reckless spending that has produced record inflation, slowed our economic recovery, and which has caused immense harm to families in Texas and across America,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said in a statement: “This bill doesn’t come anywhere close to making a down payment on reducing the deficit.”
Meanwhile, other Republicans who voted for it said they were reluctant to do so.
“Reckless spending can be the demise of our country’s well-being and endless deficit spending will eliminate the American dream for our children and grandchildren,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said in a statement. “The Fiscal Responsibility Act is not legislation I would introduce. However, no deal is not a solution, and defaulting on the national debt in no way benefits Kansans or Americans.”
On the other side of the aisle, Schumer attempted to characterize the debt-limit bill as a victory for Democrats.
“We passed this critical legislation to support American families, preserve vital programs, and avoid catastrophic default—and I look forward to President Biden signing it without delay,” he tweeted.
But like some Republicans, many Democrats indicated they merely stomached the bill to avoid economic disaster.
“The process that resulted in this deal and the legislation itself were far from perfect,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a statement. “Republicans used American families and businesses as leverage, threatening to send shockwaves through the economy, all to force through policies that will hurt communities across our nation.”
Menendez, who voted for the bill, criticized provisions that would limit access to food assistance, resume student loan payments and undermine environmental laws.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was one of five members of the Democratic caucus who voted against the bill, arguing it targeted the less fortunate while protecting the wealthy from tax hikes.
“Deficit reduction cannot just be about cutting programs that working families — the children, the sick, the elderly and the poor — depend upon,” he said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Talking to CNN on Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also voted against the measure, compared the White House’s concessions to Republicans to “paying ransom to a bunch of hostage-takers.”
A handful of Democrats were calling Friday for ending Congress’ role in raising the debt ceiling, arguing doing so would end the sort of brinksmanship that repeatedly brings the U.S. economy to the doorstep of an economic crisis.
While lawmakers have voted 79 times since 1960 to raise the amount of money the federal government can borrow to fulfill its financial obligations, some believe it’s unnecessary because the 14th Amendment of the Constitution gives the executive branch the power to unilaterally to raise the limit.
Section 4 of the amendment states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
“While we avoided a catastrophe this time around, we should never put the country in this situation again,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., wrote on Twitter. “The 14th Amendment is right there.”
While not mentioning the 14th Amendment specifically, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., tweeted “it is time to change the law to defuse the default bomb once & for all.”
Biden said Sunday he will explore the possibility of using the 14th Amendment to avoid future debt limit standoffs.
Economists said a default would have resulted in social security, military pay and other checks not going out, global stock prices plummeting, the government and Americans being hit with higher interest rates, and a recession being triggered, leading to widespread job layoffs.
