The controversial debt ceiling agreement between President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy has cleared the Senate, and will shortly be signed off at the White House.
“Tonight’s vote is a good outcome because Democrats did a very good job taking the worst parts of the Republican plan off the table,” bragged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the vote.
“[T]hat’s why Dems voted overwhelmingly for this bill, while Republicans certainly in the Senate did not,” he added.
Indeed, while the bill originated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, more House Democrats than House Republicans voted for it by a substantial margin. Combined with Senator Schumer’s victory lap, this may leave House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggling to keep spinning the deal as a Republican win.
President Joe Biden tried to strike a more magnanimous tone than Schumer, at least, praising “Senators from both parties” for protecting what he described as “our hard-earned economic progress” and preventing a “first-ever default” on the national debt.
“No one gets everything they want in a negotiation, but make no mistake: this bipartisan agreement is a big win for our economy and the American people,” Biden insisted.