The Republican-led House of Representatives has passed a bill that would boost the United States’s $31.4 trillion federal debt ceiling in exchange for slashing government spending, including programmes championed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Passed by a party-line vote of 217 to 215, with four Republicans breaking ranks, the bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it stands little chance of passing. Biden has already threatened to veto the bill, which includes spending cuts he previously called “irresponsible”.
