The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by US President Joe Biden and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Even before seeing those details, some lawmakers were criticizing the deal as not doing enough to tackle the nation’s debt, while others worried it is too austere and would harm many low-income Americans.
The legislation would probably need support from a significant number of lawmakers from both parties to clear the closely divided House and gain the 60 votes necessary to advance in the US Senate.
Photo: AFP
Many lawmakers said they were withholding judgement until they see the final details, many of which did not come out until Sunday evening. That is when the 99-page bill that resulted from the Biden-McCarthy negotiations was made public.
Some of the earliest objections are coming from the most conservative members of the US Congress, particularly members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus that often clashes with Republican leadership.
“I think it’s a disaster!” Republican US Representative Matt Rosendale wrote on Twitter.
“Fake conservatives agree to fake spending cuts,” Republican US Senator Rand Paul wrote.
“This ‘deal’ is insanity,” Republican US Representative Ralph Norman posted. “A $4T debt ceiling increase with virtually no cuts is not what we agreed to. Not gonna vote to bankrupt our country. The American people deserve better.”
Republican leaders knew all along that they would lose some members’ support in any compromise with a Democratic-led White House and Senate. The question has always been whether the deal would pick up enough Democratic support to offset those defections.
As much as some Democrats dislike what is roughly a spending freeze on non-defense programs next year and chafe at work requirements being extended to more food stamp recipients, initial reaction has been circumspect as they await more details.
US Representative Annie Kuster and chair of a group known as the New Dems, which has roughly 100 members, said the group is “confident” that White House negotiators delivered a “viable, bipartisan solution to end this crisis.”
Democratic US Senator Chris Coons said he believed it was the best deal that could be reached given the demands coming from House Republicans.
“To my colleagues who have serious misgivings about this deal, I say this is far better than defaulting,” Coons said.
The likeliest opposition would come from the more liberal members of the caucus. Democratic US Representative Pramila Jayapal has been voicing opposition to additional work requirements for some of those getting food and cash assistance.
She called it “terrible policy” on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
The Business Roundtable, a group of more than 200 chief executive officers, called on Congress to pass the bill as soon as possible.
“In addition to raising the debt ceiling, this agreement takes steps toward putting the US on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory,” group CEO Joshua Bolten said. “This deal also makes a down payment on permitting reform, helping to clear the path for new energy infrastructure projects.”
SAFE: The military said although the Somalian pirates opened fire, navy personnel managed to rescue all 17 crew members without a single one of them being hurt The Indian Navy on Saturday recaptured a ship from Somalian “pirates” off the Indian coast, the military said, rescuing the crew and ending a three-month takeover of the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier MV Ruen. The hijacking of the ship in December last year was the first time since 2017 that any cargo vessel had been successfully boarded by Somalian pirates. “#IndianNavy thwarts designs of Somalian pirates to hijack ships plying through the region by intercepting ex-MV Ruen,” the navy wrote on X. The Indian warship INS Kolkata “in the last 40 hours, through concerted actions successfully cornered and coerced all 35 Pirates to
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification yesterday added its voice to growing speculation around North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s succession plans, saying they have not “ruled out” that his daughter could be next in line to lead the nation. Pyongyang state media on Saturday referred to Kim’s teenage daughter as a “great person of guidance” — hyangdo in Korean — a term typically reserved exclusively for top leaders and their successors. Analysts said it was the first time Kim’s daughter — never named by Pyongyang, but identified as Ju-ae by South Korean intelligence — had been described as such by the North. It has
‘VENGEANCE’: The attacks came within 24 hours after Pakistan’s president vowed to retaliate for the deaths of seven Pakistani soldiers in a suicide blast at a border town Pakistani airstrikes early yesterday targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside Afghanistan, killing at least eight people and drawing return fire from the Afghan Taliban, officials said. The latest escalation is likely to further increase tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. The Pakistani strikes came two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attack in northwestern Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban denounced the strikes as an aggression on Afghanistan’s territorial integrity, saying they killed several women and children. The Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul said Afghan forces later yesterday “targeted Pakistan’s military centers along the border
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to