WASHINGTON: US lawmakers voted Wednesday to raise the national borrowing limit as a crucial first step to averting a catastrophic default, greenlighting a pact struck between Washington’s warring parties after weeks of brinkmanship and fraught backroom deal-making.
Hammered out between Democratic President Joe Biden and the Republicans in the House of Representatives, the measure suspends the debt ceiling through 2024, slightly cutting government spending next year. “Passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act is a crucial first step for putting America back on track,” said Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress.
“It does what is responsible for our children, what is possible in divided government, and what is required by our principles and promises.”
Biden hailed the 314-117 vote as a “critical step” to protecting the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery that had been achieved through “bipartisan compromise.”
The drama capped a tense few days on Capitol Hill, with the Treasury expecting to run out of the money as soon as Monday.
The Republican majority in the House needed help from dozens of Democrats to fend off a right-wing rebellion — 71 conservatives voted no — and advance the deal to the Senate, which is expected to follow suit by the end of the week. McCarthy’s lieutenants had spent the final hours frantically whipping votes, as senior Democrats vowed that their members would put the nation’s finances above the temptation to give the opposition a bloody nose.
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