President Joe Biden celebrated “preventing the crisis” in his first address to the nation from the Oval Office on Friday night, getting ready. sign budget agreement that eliminates the possibility of an unprecedented government default, which he said would be catastrophic for the US and global economy.
The bipartisan measure was approved by the Senate on Thursday night after being passed by the House in another late session the night before. Biden will sign it at the White House on Saturday with only two days to spare until the Treasury Department warns that the United States will not be able to meet its obligations.
“The passage of this budget agreement is very important. The deposit couldn’t be higher,” Biden said. “There would be nothing more catastrophic than the default of the country,” he said.
The deal has been hashed out by Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of the federal spending cuts they demanded but keeping their stance on key Democrats’ priorities. It raised the debt limit through 2025 — after the 2024 presidential election — and laid out budget targets for lawmakers for the next two years, hoping to ensure fiscal stability as the political season comes. heated up.
“Nobody has everything they want, but the American people get what they need,” Biden said, highlighting the “compromise and consensus” in the deal. “We prevented an economic crisis and an economic collapse.”
Biden took the opportunity to list his first-term achievements while running for re-election, including supporting high-tech manufacturing, infrastructure investment, and financial incentives to combat climate change. climate change.
“We’re cutting spending and reducing the deficit at the same time,” Biden said. “We are protecting critical priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid for Veterans to our transformational investments in clean energy and infrastructure.”
Biden also made a new tout for his style of rule, which he described as less shouting and lower temperatures after President Donald Trump’s four years in office.
“I know bipartisanship is difficult,” he said. “And unity is hard. But we can never stop trying.”
Even while pledging to continue working with Republicans, Biden has stoked opposition to the opposition, especially when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, something the Democrat president doesn’t offer. owner searched.
That’s something he suggested might need to wait until a second term.
“I’ll be back,” he said. “With your help, I will win.”
Biden’s comments were the most detailed yet from the Democratic president about the compromise he and his staffers negotiated. He has largely remained silent from the public during high-level negotiations, a decision that has disappointed some members of his party but is intended to create space for both sides to reach an agreement and let politicians Legislature votes for his desk.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden is using the opportunity to deliver his first speech to the nation from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office because “he just wanted to make sure that the American people understood its importance. To get this done, how important it is to do this in a bipartisan manner.”
Biden praised McCarthy and his negotiators for acting in good faith, and all congressional leaders for ensuring the law passed quickly. “They acted responsibly and put the interests of the country above politics,” he said.
Overall, the 99-page bill limits spending for the next two years and changes several policies, including imposing new work requirements on older Americans receiving food aid and giving them the green light. for the Appalachian natural gas pipeline, which many Democrats oppose. Amendment of some regulations on environment to help streamline approvals for energy and infrastructure projects — a move long sought by moderates in Congress.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it could actually expand the total number of federal food aid eligibility, with the removal of job requirements for veterans, the homeless, and the elderly. leaving the foster care facility.
The act also boosts defense and veterans funding, cuts some new money to the Internal Revenue Service, and rebuffs Biden’s call to rescind Trump-era tax breaks for corporations and rich people to help cover the nation’s deficit. But the White House said the IRS’s plan to strengthen tax enforcement against high-income earners and corporations would continue.
The deal also imposes an automatic 1 percent overall cut on spending programs if Congress fails to pass annual spending bills – a measure designed to pressure lawmakers. Both sides reached consensus before the end of the fiscal year in September.
In both houses, more Democrats supported the legislation than Republicans, but both parties criticized its passage. In the Senate, the vote count was 63-36 including 46 Democrats and independents and 17 supporting Republicans, 31 Republicans along with four Democrats and one independent. convened a closed-door meeting with opposing Democrats.
The number of votes in the House of Representatives was 314-117.
