Joe Biden completes his first Oval Office address
Joe Biden has finished briefing the nation on the bipartisan deal that pulled the nation back from the brink of its first default which would have led to “economic collapse”, Biden said.
Biden described the bill’s enactment as “essential to the progress we’ve made over the last few years” in “keeping full faith and credit of the United States of America and passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation”.
Biden said he would sign the bill Saturday, with just two days left before the 5 June default deadline. Once enacted, the law will suspend the government’s borrowing limit until January 2025, ensuring the issue will not resurface before the next presidential election.
As part of his negotiations with McCarthy, Biden agreed to some spending cuts and new work requirements for benefits programs. Those policies were denounced by progressives in Congress, many of whom opposed the debt ceiling bill in protest.
Read the Guardian’s full story on the address here.
Updated
In a celebratory address, Joe Biden touted the benefits of bipartisanship and the ways that the debt ceiling bill will benefit veterans, improve the US’s infrastructure, and lead to lower drug prices.
“Unity is hard but we can never stop trying because in moments like this, one where the American and world economy is at risk of collapsing, there’s no other way,” Biden said during the address. “We need to see each other not as adversaries but other Americans.”
His remarks mark the end of weeks of heated debate the ended with a number of concessions for democrats including modest cuts and changes to the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
This agreement shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue until 2025, after the next presidential election.
Updated
