US President Joe Biden and House Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed that the White House and Republicans have reached an "agreement in principle" to increase the debt ceiling and prevent the country from entering into default.

"I just got on the phone with the president. After he wasted time and refused to negotiate for months, we have reached an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people," McCarthy said in a message on social media.

Minutes later, in a brief appearance before the press, the Republican said that the agreement includes a "historic" reduction in public spending and reforms that "will lift people out of poverty and incorporate them into the labor force."

He also stressed that it does not contain new taxes or new government programs.

"We still have a lot of work to do tonight to finish the whole text" of the agreement, warned the leader of the Republicans in Congress, who did not want to answer questions from the press because he first wanted to tell the legislators of his party the details of the pre-agreement, he said.

McCarthy said lawmakers will continue drafting the bill tonight. After this he will consult with the White House, speak with Biden "tomorrow afternoon" before publishing the text, which will be voted on Wednesday 31.

An hour after McCarthy's appearance, President Biden released a statement in which he acknowledged that the principle of agreement contains concessions from the Democrats, but maintains the "key priorities" of his administration.

"The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That is the responsibility of governing," he said.

However, he added, the agreement "protects" his "key priorities" and "the legislative achievements of congressional Democrats."

"It's an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for workers and growing the economy for everyone," Biden added.

The president confirmed that the negotiating teams of both parties are tasked with finalizing the legislative text, which will be voted on in both the House of Representatives (controlled by Republicans) and the Senate (controlled by Democrats). "I strongly urge both chambers to approve the agreement immediately," he concluded.

The preliminary agreement comes a day after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen updated to June 5 her estimate of the deadline after which the country could be forced into default.

The debt limit is the total amount of money the U.S. government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations to be able to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.

From time to time, the United States defaults on the national debt because, unlike other countries, the government can only issue debt up to the limit established by Congress, which has the power to raise that ceiling as it sees fit.

The country reached its legal debt limit of 19.31 trillion dollars on January 4, which led the Treasury Department to resort since then to extraordinary measures to pay the bills.

When the agreement is finalized and approved in the chambers, it will end a period of strong confrontation between Democrats and Republicans, who had been trying unsuccessfully for months to bring positions on this issue closer.

Biden has been blunt these months to make concessions accusing "the MAGA Republicans in Congress", in reference to the most radical legislators of the party who follow former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), of threatening the progress of the country with "completely" unacceptable demands.

However, negotiations intensified in recent weeks, with the deadline approaching, an urgency that led President Biden to return before his trip to Japan for the G7 summit.

Institutions such as the Federal Reserve (Fed) have warned these months about the risks of not raising the debt ceiling. Failure to do so, its chairman, Jerome Powell, recently warned, "would be unprecedented" and "we would be in uncharted territory" whose consequences "would be very uncertain."

International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also been warning about the urgent need for Congress to act since, if it does not, there will be "serious repercussions" both for the US economy and globally.

  • United States
  • Politics
  • Joe Biden

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