Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy push for votes on spending deal as US debt default looms
- Democrat and Republican leaders are hitting the phones to lobby for a federal spending bill seen by both sides to contain unwelcome concessions
- Backers of the deal have only a week to get the agreement through Congress before a possible June 5 default that could have catastrophic consequences
The White House and Republican congressional leaders geared up lobbying campaigns to win approval of a deal to avert a US default as environmentalists, defence hawks and conservative hardliners condemned concessions.
President Joe Biden’s cabinet members and senior White House staff already had made individual lobbying calls to at least 60 House Democrats by early Monday morning to press them for votes in favour, a Democratic official said.
Both Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed confidence they would muster the necessary votes. And approval gained early support from prominent members of each party’s moderate and pragmatist wings.
The bill sets the course for federal spending through 2025 and will suspend the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025, likely putting off another fight over federal borrowing authority until the middle of that year. In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years.
White House interpretation of the caps has it telling lawmakers the deal would lower spending by about US$1 trillion over a decade, while the Republicans argue the spending cut is double that.