President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation on Saturday to raise the debt ceiling, dodging Monday's deadline when the Treasury warned that the United States would start running short of cash to pay all its bills.The bipartisan measure, passed by the House on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday, averts the potential of an unprecedented government default that would have rocked the U.S.
and global economies. Raising the nation’s debt limit, now at $31.4 trillion, will ensure that the government can borrow to pay debts already incurred."Passing this budget agreement was critical.
The stakes could not have been higher," Biden said from the Oval Office on Friday evening. "Nothing would have been more catastrophic," he said, than defaulting on the country's debt.The agreement was hashed out by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of their demanded federal spending cuts but holding the line on major Democratic priorities.
It raises the debt limit until 2025 — after the 2024 presidential election — and gives legislators budget targets for the next two years in hopes of assuring fiscal stability as the political season heats up."No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed," Biden said, highlighting the "compromise and consensus" in the deal. "We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse."Biden used the opportunity to itemize the achievements of his first term as he runs for reelection, including support for high-tech manufacturing, infrastructure investments and financial incentives for fighting climate change.