Debt ceiling news – live: Biden signs debt limit bill after hailing deal in Oval Office address
Bill passed after senators rejected 11 proposed amendments
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
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.
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Senate passes GOP bill overturning student loan cancellation, teeing it up for Biden veto
A Republican measure overturning President Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation plan has passed the Senate and now awaits an expected veto
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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Maybe, just maybe, ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden is good at this bipartisan negotiation stuff
He didn’t get everything he wanted, he conceded on the environment, but Republicans didn’t ‘school him’ and he’s looking better ahead of his re-election bid
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.
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Underestimated McCarthy emerges from debt deal empowered as speaker, still threatened by far right
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is nothing if not a political survivor
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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'Shrink the room:' How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt-limit deal and staved off a catastrophe
Perhaps most critical to locking up the debt-limit deal were President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s five handpicked negotiators, three men and two women unknown to most outside government
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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Boebert didn’t turn up to vote on debt ceiling deal she furiously campaigned against
GOP Congresswoman tweeted or retweeted her opposition to the deal 23 times in the past week, then failed to show for Wednesday night’s vote. ‘Is anyone surprised?’ wrote one Democratic critic
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.
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Deal approved, Biden will address budget, debt agreement from Oval Office Friday evening
President Joe Biden will speak Friday evening from the Oval Office as he addresses the nation on the budget deal that lifts the federal debt limit
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.
Anti-poverty groups blast work requirements for aid to poor Americans in debt deal
‘We shouldn’t be playing politics with programs that help Americans meet their basic needs’
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.
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
Biden addresses nation from Oval Office ahead of signing debt limit bill
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