This week, the US Congress approved legislation that raises the US public debt ceiling and allows Washington to pay its payments until early 2025, in addition to setting a number of targets in the budget.
Biden thanked members of Congress, including Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, for their “cooperation” on the matter, according to a White House statement Saturday.
The passage of the law in the Senate on Thursday, where the majority of the members are Democrats, and in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, where the majority of the members are Republicans, allowed the United States to avoid neglecting their duties, as soon as Monday. , June 5.
“We have averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” Biden said in a televised address to the nation from the Oval Office on Friday, restoring the tone of unity and calm with which he opened his presidential term.
“Nothing would be more irresponsible and nothing would be more catastrophic,” he said, than the default that threatened the United States from June 5.
“It’s hard to find a compromise that crosses partisan lines, Biden said. Unity is hard, but we must never stop trying.”
shared victory
The financial confrontation between Democrats and Republicans had largely political objectives.
Biden, 80, who is seeking re-election in 2024, realizes his advanced age is threatening his chances.
Biden hopes reaching an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, after sparking concern in political and media circles in the United States, will bolster his image as a seasoned and savvy leader.
On Friday, the American president made a point of saluting his most prominent adversary on the question of religion, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
“Both sides negotiated in good faith. Both sides kept their word,” he said.
Although the president intended to use the occasion to increase his political balance, he avoided an explicit declaration of victory after negotiations with the opposition on the budget.
“Nobody got everything they wanted, but Americans got what they needed,” he said.
McCarthy has sought to consolidate his power over a diverse House constituency, between moderate conservatives and staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The Republican billionaire, also a candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for 2024, called for maintaining a tough stance in negotiations with the White House.
In the end, both sides declared themselves the winners, the Republicans praising their ability to freeze certain expenditures, while the Democrats praised the preservation of social gains and major investments.
Continuing through debt
There is no indication that this political battle over public finances will really affect the electorate in 2024.
This political deadlock is not the first, as doubts about the possibility of raising the debt ceiling had prevailed under President Barack Obama.
However, what is certain is that the political confrontation had an impact as Fitch Ratings held the US AAAA rating agency under scrutiny on Friday. Fitch denounced “political polarization” and pointed to a “continuous deterioration in governance over the past 15 years”.
The United States, like almost every other developed economic power, is debt-dependent and has the highest debt in the world, but it is the only industrial power that regularly hits a debt ceiling that Congress must each time pick up after an arduous negotiation process. .
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