Biden strikes a surprising compromise in the US debt dispute How the BBC was embarrassed by Andrew Tate on camera

After the cross-party agreement on a solution to the US debt dispute, President Joe Biden called for cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. In a highly symbolic appearance, Biden celebrated the averting of government bankruptcy on Friday evening (local time) and warned that in dramatic situations like these, impartial cooperation cannot be ignored. “It couldn’t have been more at stake,” the Democrat said in an address to the nation from the Oval Office at the White House. “We have avoided an economic crisis and an economic collapse.”

It was Biden’s first official address to the nation from the Oval Office since taking office nearly two and a half years ago. Such speeches from the president’s office at government headquarters, broadcast live on US television during prime time, are a rarity and are usually reserved for major situations and crises. Biden now used the special stage to make everything clear after weeks of invoked catastrophe scenarios and strike a conciliatory tone despite the upcoming presidential election in a politically deeply divided country.

The U.S. Congress averted government insolvency on Thursday by passing a law almost at the last minute. In the US, parliament sets a debt ceiling at irregular intervals and thus determines how much money the state can borrow. Only after a long nerve-wracking and bitter partisan political battle did Biden’s Democrats and Republicans reach a compromise. The government would run out of money on Monday, according to the Treasury Department. A bankruptcy of the world’s largest economy could have sparked a global financial crisis and economic downturn.

Biden once again described which cliff the US narrowly avoided:

That is why it was so important to reach an agreement between the parties.

The president announced that he will sign the passed law on Saturday for it to go into effect. Biden specifically thanked Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, with whom he had personally negotiated a compromise in several rounds of negotiations. He and McCarthy got along well, were direct and honest with each other, and both sides kept their word. In the political climate in the US, in which Democrats and Republicans – especially on the fringes of both parties – are sometimes downright hostile to each other, such tones are rare these days.

Working together across party lines is hard, Biden said, but he stressed, “We should never stop trying. Because in situations like this, which we just had to deal with, where the US economy and the world economy are in danger of collapsing, there is no other option.” However great the differences in content, the parties should not see each other as opponents. , but as fellow citizens. They must treat each other with respect and work together for the good of the country. Referring to the compromise, he said: “Nobody got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed.”

The law, passed by Congress, stipulates that the US federal debt ceiling will be suspended until 2025. It was most recently about $31.4 trillion (about $29.1 trillion). At the same time, government spending will be limited for the next two years under pressure from the Republicans. The deal effectively freezes the size of the federal budget that Democrats wanted to increase under Biden. The budgets of many federal agencies and ministries are being adjusted for this. The Republicans could also force recipients of certain social benefits to prove a job. The Democrats actually wanted to increase state revenues by taxing the rich more heavily. On the other hand, Republicans are bracing themselves.

Many Democrats and Republicans are unhappy with the deal. Left-wing Democrats complain about cuts in the social sector. For right-wing Republicans, the cuts don’t go far enough. And many moderate politicians from the middle of both parties are not enthusiastic at all. In view of the imminent dramatic fallout, enough congressmen from both camps eventually voted for the deal, securing the necessary majority in parliament. (cst/sda/dpa)