Passage Of Debt Limit Bill In House Could Push Biden To Negotiating Table

The passage of a bill intended to lift the US debt ceiling and avoid a catastrophic default does little to resolve the issue in the short term but could push the White House towards the negotiating table with House Republicans. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) secured a narrow 217-215 passage of the legislation which now passes onto the Senate. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has already declared the bill 'dead on arrival' given the demands it lays out for strict spending restrictions.

• Following the passage of the bill, President Joe Biden stated that he was “Happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended...That’s not negotiable.” Biden insisted that he would talk about the budget with Republicans, but that a 'clean' debt limit bill must be passed.
• The GOP bill would raise the debt limit by USD1.5trn into the spring of 2024 (putting the next set of negotiations squarely into the 2024 presidential campaign) in exchange for a number of commitments on spending including the clawing back of unspent pandemic support funds, a cancellation of Biden's student debt relief plan, and set a USD1.47trn limit on discretionary federal spending with a 1% annual increase from there.