WASHINGTON − President Joe Biden is expected to tell the nation Friday night that no one got everything they wanted from the debt limit deal Congress approved Thursday, but “the American people got what they needed.”
“We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” Biden will say, according to excerpts of his remarks.
Biden is addressing the nation the day after Congress passed the package he negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to suspend the debt limit and reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over the decade.
Biden is expected to sign the bill into law as soon as Saturday, just two days before the nation could have run out of maneuvers to pay its bills.
Although the deal avoids an unprecedented default, the rating agency Fitch said Friday it’s maintaining its warning of a potential credit downgrade because “repeated political standoffs around the debt-limit…lowers confidence in governance on fiscal and debt matters.”
The agency cited a “steady deterioration in governance over the last 15 years, with increased political polarization and partisanship.”
The deal suspends the debt ceiling until January 2025, restricts spending for the next two years and makes various policy changes, including speeding up permitting for oil and gas projects and imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food assistance.
