Global Courant
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden addressed the nation Friday night from the Oval Office after Congress voted this week to cut spending and extend the debt ceiling by two years.
The speech, Biden’s first Oval Office speech, was about how the bipartisan effort “avoided an economic crisis,” Biden said.
“Getting this budget deal approved was critical. The stakes couldn’t have been higher,” he added.
“No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed. We avoided economic crisis and economic collapse.”
Earlier Friday, Biden’s press secretary said the president planned to strengthen how bipartisan cooperation could avoid the potential economic disaster of a debt burden.
“He wants to talk directly to the American people and talk about how we were able to come together and get results,” said Karine Jean-Pierre. “This is important.”
The Bipartisan Budget Agreement passed by a final vote of 63-36 in the Senate Thursday night, sending the bill to the president’s desk. Jean-Pierre said Biden will not sign the bill on Friday and indicated it will likely happen on Saturday.
“Senators from both parties have voted to protect the hard-earned economic progress we have made and prevent a first-ever default by the United States,” Biden said in a statement overnight.
The companion bill in the Republican-led House, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, passed by a final vote of 314 to 117 on Wednesday.
“It protects the core pillars of my Investing in America agenda, which are creating good jobs across the country, fueling a manufacturing revival, rebuilding our infrastructure and advancing clean energy,” as well as programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Biden said in the statement, “It protects my student debt relief plan for hard-working borrowers. And it honors America’s sacred obligation to our veterans by fully funding veterans’ medical care.”
He added, “I look forward to signing this bill into law as soon as possible.”
Biden brokered the deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after promising not to negotiate the debt ceiling, a stance he maintained even as leaders hatched a plan to cut the federal budget. The cuts angered members of both parties, with some Republicans insisting they weren’t strict enough, while Democrats arguing they went too far.
Above the talks loomed the fast approaching threat of economic catastrophe as the government warned it would soon run out of money to pay its bills.
Fitch Ratings, a leading credit rating agency, that put the US on the map Negative watch last week, said Friday that it is keeping the federal government’s credit rating at perfect AAA, but will monitor it negatively through the third quarter of this year, citing “a steady deterioration in governance over the past 15 years.”
In response, Treasury Department spokeswoman Lily Adams noted that the debt ceiling bill was passed by “a broad bipartisan majority of both chambers”, calling it a “fiscally responsible” measure that “will continue to meet all of our commitments” .
“The Treasury market remains the safest, deepest and most liquid market in the world,” Adams added.
Last month, Biden interrupted a foreign visit to return to the table in Washington as the clock ran out.
During the fraught talks, Biden weighed in on using his powers to unilaterally increase the government’s borrowing limit by invoking the 14th Amendment, a move that would be based on an untested legal theory but which some Democrats believe the president have urged serious consideration.
Brian Cheung and Monica Alba contributed.
