Among its provisions were terms to claw back funding from the Internal Revenue Service, the US’s tax-collecting body, as well as unspent COVID relief money. “We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse.”įor his part, McCarthy has called Congress’s passage of the debt-ceiling bill a “vote for the largest savings in American history”. But the American people got what they needed,” Biden said on Friday, addressing the criticisms. Meanwhile, members of the Democratic party bemoaned the spending caps anticipated to affect social safety net initiatives, as well as heightened work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Far-right Republicans blasted the bill for not imposing steep-enough cuts to discretionary government spending – and for failing to offer an adequate boost to defence funds. Still, the path to Thursday’s 63-36 Senate vote was fraught with controversy. The White House estimated a default could have cost 8 million Americans their jobs. The US would have likely seen its credit rating fall and its interest rates increase, and businesses and individuals dependent on government funds might have seen their payments paused. Had the US hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling – the limit for the federal government’s borrowing powers – experts predicted that the economic fallout could trigger a recession. Nothing would have been more catastrophic.” Nothing, nothing would have been more irresponsible. If we had failed to reach an agreement on the budget, there were extreme voices threatening to take America – for the first time in our 247-year history – into default on our national debt. The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden explained in his address. “Passing this budget agreement was critical. The bill had previously passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a margin of 314 to 117.

The country had been rapidly approaching a June 5 deadline, set by the US Treasury, at which time the federal government would have likely run out of funds to pay off its debts. The bill’s passage through the Senate on Thursday all but assures that the US will not default on its loans.

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