Debt ceiling news – live: Biden signs debt limit bill after hailing deal in Oval Office address

Bill passed after senators rejected 11 proposed amendments

Voting has started as lawmakers agree on a debt limit deal

President Joe Biden has signed a bill to raise the national debt limit two days before the default deadline.

The White House announced the signing in a statement on Saturday afternoon, hours after Mr Biden spoke to the nation on Friday evening from the Oval Office and welcomed the bill’s bipartisan passage.

The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan agreement forged by Mr Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the $31.4 trillion US debt ceiling after the deal survived a Republican rebellion in the House of Representatives.

The narrowness of the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s passage through the House was made possible through the support of Democrats, who stepped in to thwart a conservative revolt that badly undermined Speaker McCarthy’s claims to control his increasingly divided party.

Full congressional approval was required before Monday 5 June, when the Treasury Department was expected to run out of funds to pay its debts for the first time in American history, triggering likely economic chaos.

Key Points

• Biden addresses the nation and touts debt limit agreement in primetime speech
• Senate passes debt limit bill after marathon 11 amendment votes to avoid default
• Debt limit bill advances in House by vote of 314-117
• Kevin McCarthy ally says White House got ‘schooled’ in debt negotiations
• Does this deal mean the end of McCarthy’s speakership?

[2 June 2023 20:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

Biden readies veto as Senate passes GOP bill overturning student loan cancellation

A Republican measure overturning President Joe Biden‘s student loan cancellation plan passed the Senate on Thursday and now awaits an expected veto.

The vote was 52-46, with support from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana as well as Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent. The resolution was approved last week by the GOP-controlled House by a 218-203 vote.

Biden has pledged to keep in place his commitment to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loans for 43 million people. The legislation adds to Republican criticism of the plan, which was halted in November in response to lawsuits from conservative opponents.

Read more...

[2 June 2023 20:36 · Oliver O'Connell]

Voices: Maybe, just maybe, ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden is good at this bipartisan negotiation stuff

Eric Garcia writes:

To be sure, Mr Biden is the oldest person to ever occupy the Oval Office and his penchant for making nonsensical comments goes back to when he was the youngest Senator ever elected in recent history in 1972.

But given the fact that Mr Biden will have a debt limit increase head to his desk for his signature after a high-stakes few weeks of negotiations, perhaps it is time for his conservative critics to admit that the president actually knows what he is doing when it comes to working with the legislative branch and Congress as a whole.

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[2 June 2023 21:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Still threatened by far right, underestimated McCarthy emerges from debt deal empowered as speaker

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is nothing if not a political survivor.

Underestimated from the start, the Republican who cruised around his California hometown of Bakersfield and stumbled into a career in Congress was never taken too seriously by the Washington establishment.

With overwhelming House passage of the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden, the emergent speaker proved the naysayers and eye-rollers otherwise. A relentless force, he pushed a reluctant White House to the negotiating table and delivered the votes from his balky House GOP majority to seal the deal.

[2 June 2023 21:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

Biden to address nation at 7pm

[2 June 2023 21:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt-limit deal

It was advice that Mitch McConnell had offered to Joe Biden once already: To resolve the debt-limit standoff, he needed to strike a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and McCarthy alone. But after a first meeting of the top four congressional leaders with the president in early May, the Senate minority leader felt the need to reemphasize his counsel.

After returning from the White House that day, McConnell called the president to privately urge him to “shrink the room” – meaning no direct involvement in the talks for himself, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

That, McConnell stressed to Biden, was the only way to avert a potentially economy-rattling default.

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[2 June 2023 22:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

ICYMI: Boebert didn’t turn up to vote on debt ceiling deal she furiously campaigned against

MAGA firebrand Lauren Boebert emerged as one of the fiercest critics to the debt ceiling deal brokered by House leader Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden to avoid a catastrophic default.

But when it was time for the House of Representatives to cast their votes on Wednesday night, she failed to show up.

Ms Boebert was mocked on social media after she reportedly “narrowly missed the vote, running up the steps right as they gaveled”, according to Axios Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke.

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[2 June 2023 23:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

Coming up: Biden to address budget, debt agreement from Oval Office

President Joe Biden planned to discuss the contentious, just-passed budget deal in a speech to the nation Friday night, ready to sign the agreement averting the country’s first-ever government default, which would have sent shock waves through the US and global economies.

Read more...

[2 June 2023 23:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Anti-poverty groups and progressives blast work requirements for aid to poor Americans

An agreement to raise the debt ceiling would expand the age bracket for eligibility for food assistance, adding a punitive and unnecessary barrier for poor Americans with only negligible savings for the federal government, advocacy groups have warned.

Most Americans with low or no incomes who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) must comply with certain work requirements to be eligible to receive funds to help pay for groceries. But under a deal struck between President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, adults up to age 54 would be required to show proof of work.

Alex Woodward has the story.

[3 June 2023 00:05 · Graeme Massie]

Biden addresses the nation and touts debt limit agreement in primetime speech

President’s first formal Oval Office address comes as he signed bipartisan legislation to avert a default on America’s sovereign debt.

[3 June 2023 00:10 · Graeme Massie]

Biden addresses nation from Oval Office ahead of signing debt limit bill

US President Joe Biden sit at his desk ahead of addressing the nation on averting default and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, June 2, 2023 (via REUTERS)