Saturday, November 4, 2023

Biden and McCarthy Tentatively Agree to Raise US Debt Ceiling

Date:

US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have tentatively agreed to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling to $3.4tn, just days before a deadline to avoid a potentially catastrophic default. However, McCarthy’s description of the deal suggests it may not be absolute, indicating the difficult path it has to pass through Congress before the US runs out of money to pay its debts on 5 June. The agreement would raise the debt limit for two years while capping spending over that time, and includes extra work requirements for programmes for the poor. The deal will avert an economically destabilising default, so long as the president and the speaker succeed in passing it through the narrowly divided Congress before the Treasury Department runs short of money to cover all its obligations.

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