US House Republicans pass debt ceiling bill, as they push Joe Biden on spending cuts
- The narrowly passed legislation will slash programmes like healthcare for the poor, and is expected to be ‘dead on arrival’ in the Senate
- Biden has insisted on a debt-limit increase with no strings attached, as the threat of a devastating US default looms
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to raise the nation’s US$31.4 trillion debt ceiling, defying President Joe Biden by attaching sweeping spending cuts for the next decade.
With this mostly partisan 217-215 vote, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hopes to lure Biden into negotiations on cutting spending, even as he and his fellow Democrats in Congress insist on a debt-limit increase with no strings attached.
“The minute we pass a bill, it changes that entire dynamic, and it puts actual pressure on the Senate to do their job. And if they say they’re not going to pass our bill, then which bill are they going to pass?” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a telephone interview before the vote.
“The idea that they just sit back and do nothing is not acceptable.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer disagreed, telling reporters the House bill is “dead on arrival”. He said the Republican legislation “only brings us dangerously closer” to a historic US debt default that would shake markets and economies worldwide.