US President Biden signed into law a bill to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, preventing the risk of government default.
"Thank you to Chairman McCarthy, Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell for their cooperation," the White House said in a statement on June 3 about President Joe Biden signing the debt ceiling suspension bill, naming the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate.
President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on June 2. Photo: AP
“Getting this deal done is important and it’s very good news for the American people,” Biden said on June 2. “Nobody got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed.”
The US House and Senate passed legislation to prevent the US from defaulting on its debt last week after President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement.
The Republican-controlled House voted 314-117 to pass the deal, and the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 63-36.
House Speaker McCarthy and President Biden reached a tentative debt ceiling deal late on May 27 after weeks of negotiations. The deal includes suspending the debt ceiling for two years, limiting spending during that time, recovering unused Covid-19 relief funds, speeding up permitting for some energy projects and adding more conditions to welfare programs for the poor.
The prolonged deadlock in debt ceiling negotiations between the House and the White House has sent financial markets reeling, weighed on stocks and forced the US to pay record high interest rates on some bond sales. Economists say a default would be much more damaging, potentially plunging the country into recession , shaking the global economy and sending unemployment soaring.
The last time the US was on the brink of default was in 2011, when the president and Senate were all Democrats and the House was controlled by Republicans. Congress eventually averted a default, but the economy suffered severe shocks, including the first-ever US credit rating downgrade and a massive stock sell-off.
Vu Hoang (According to Reuters )
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