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

“Republicans may not like it, but I’m gonna make sure the wealthy pay their fair share,” he said during a Friday evening address to the nation from the Oval Office.

“There’s a reason that Biden and the Democrats are popping champagne and celebrating, they got Republican leadership to roll over… almost all of the spending cuts House Republicans initially passed, The Biden White House succeeded in getting stripped from this bill,” the US Senator from Texas admitted on Newsmax.

The Senate voted late on Thursday night to raise the debt limit and avoid allowing the United States to default on its debt for the first time in history after having an all-night marathon session of votes to assuage Republican concerns.

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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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.

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday evening to raise the debt limit, with more Democrats voting to raise the limit than Republicans, and all but guaranteeing its passage in the United States Senate.

The vote served as a triumph for House Republicans as they moved the White House from initially wanting to have a clean debt limit increase to agreeing to some spending cuts. But 71 Republicans still opposed the agreement negotiated by the Biden administration and Reps Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Garret Graves (R-LA).

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he hopes to pass the legislation quickly and before 5 June, when the Treasury Department says the United States will be unable to fulfill its debt obligations and risk defaulting on its debt.

This was the first major test for House Republicans’ resolve since they took control of the lower chamber in January after a protracted series of votes to get a speaker. Some conservatives crowed that the bill did not go far enough in spending cuts while House Republican leaders say they forced the White House’s hand. Conversely, progressive Democrats criticised the deal for putting in place work requirements for social welfare programs.

These are the winners and losers of the debt limit standoff.

Let’s take a look at what leaders in Washington have come up with to break the deadlock.

Eric Garcia explains.

Democrats are deeply conflicted about the food aid requirements that President Joe Biden negotiated as part of the debt ceiling deal, fearing damage has been done to safety net programs that will be difficult to unravel in the years ahead as Republicans demand further cuts.

Bargaining over toughening work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, became the focal point for the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., up until the end. Negotiators from both sides made clear, publicly and privately, that it was the biggest area of disagreement and almost led to the talks breaking down several times.

In the end, Democrats warily accepted new requirements for some able-bodied recipients in exchange for food aid. Republicans agreed to drop some work requirements for veterans, homeless people and others.

The result of the tense back-and-forth was a deal that played to both sides, but one that many Democrats agonized over as they weighed whether to vote for the package this past week. Many struggled to square cutting access to food for marginalized communities with an outcome that allowed the United States to avoid defaulting on its debt.

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Following its passage through the House and Senate this week, the Fiscal Responsibility Act is all but set in stone.

The only step left is getting a signature from President Joe Biden, who hailed the deal in a primetime address on Friday night.

“Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” he said, just moments after he told Americans that the goals of the agreement — “keeping the full, faith, and credit of the United States” and enacting “a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation” – are “essential” to continuing the progress made during the first two years of his presidency.

Mr Biden indicated that he will sign the bill sometime on Saturday.