'This is a compromise': How the White House is defending the debt ceiling bill
House lawmakers passed a bill to suspend the debt ceiling, enabling the U.S. to pay off its bills while also cutting federal spending going forward.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 passed the House in a bipartisan 314-117 vote Wednesday night, with just days to spare and concessions on both sides, as NPR has reported.
It establishes spending caps for the federal budget and implements policy changes, including clawing back some $27 billion in funding to federal agencies intended to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and phasing in higher age limits for work requirements on certain federal safety net programs, like food stamps.
President Biden called it a "critical step forward to prevent a first-ever default," and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said lawmakers "made history" with the scope of their savings.
The Congressional Budget Office has projected a total deficit reduction of $1.5 trillion over the next decade, though that doesn't take into account several "agreed-upon adjustments" that would increase federal spending in the coming months.
Bharat Ramamurti, the deputy director of the National Economic Council — which advises the president on economic policy — says the administration's view is that the bill takes the possibility of default off the table, protects entitlement programs like social security and Medicare, and helps preserve economic progress from the last few years.
"We think we were able to secure some of our key priorities, and if the speaker thinks that he got what he's wanted to get out of this, that's why you see bipartisan support for the deal both in the House and hopefully the Senate," Ramamurti told Morning Edition's Leila Fadel on Thursday.
The legislation heads now to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which will need to approve it by Monday to get it to the president's desk and keep the U.S. from defaulting. Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle have said they aim to pass it as quickly as possible, ideally by the end of the week.
That doesn't mean all senators are on board with the bill (which needs 60 votes to pass). Some progressives — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — have slammed the concessions on things like work requirements, student debt repayments, climate change and taxes on the wealthy.
Ramamurti says that while the administration respects the opinion of every member of Congress, "we think this is a good, fair deal."
"As the president has said, this is a compromise, and a compromise means that nobody gets exactly what they want," he adds. "There are certainly elements of this agreement where we share some of these concerns ... but they were priorities for the Republican party, and in a world where we have divided government the deal's going to have to reflect that reality."
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Interview highlights
On whether any of these concessions are reversible
It at least opens the door or leaves open the possibility for changes in the future, of course. For example, some of the reductions in funding for the [Internal Revenue Service], something that we didn't necessarily agree with, of course doesn't foreclose the possibility of adding more money for that department in the future.
But I think crucially, even in the short term, what this bill does is it allows us to continue to advance the priorities the president had over the last two years. On the IRS funding, for example, while there's a small reduction, the Treasury Department and IRS remain confident that with the funding we still have we'll be able to continue to offer much better service to taxpayers, we'll continue to be able to step up our enforcement of tax evasion on the wealthy and big corporations who previously have been able to evade some of their tax obligations.
On those who argue Biden shouldn't have negotiated at all
I certainly understand those views. I think the president feels like it was important to take the possibility of default off the table in a definitive way. Congress has acted 78 times previously in this country's history to suspend or increase the debt ceiling, that is the foolproof method of addressing this and in order to get that the president needed to sit down with his counterparts in the House ... Every year you have to do a negotiation over the budget; we did one last year with Democrats and Republicans and came out with a fair deal and we think ultimately the deal that the president secured is very similar to the ones we've gotten in the past.
On the historic significance of the bill
I think that there were important priorities for the president and important priorities for the speaker reflected in this deal. We think that we have secured a level of funding for domestic programs that allows us to continue to pursue our priorities. We were glad to see the continued funding for veterans' medical care and ... Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, no cuts to those programs, as the Republicans initially wanted.
The broadcast interview was edited by Jan Johnson.
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Transcript
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
After weeks of negotiations, the House has passed a bill to suspend the debt ceiling and keep the U.S. from defaulting on what it owes. In a GOP-controlled House, the compromise got more support from Democrats than from Republicans. But to keep the U.S. out of default, the Senate needs to approve the bill by Monday.
To get the Biden administration's perspective, we're joined by Bharat Ramamurti. He's deputy director of the National Economic Council. Good morning, and thanks for being on the program.
BHARAT RAMAMURTI: Good morning.
FADEL: So I want to start with some critics within your party. A lot of progressives, including your former boss, Senator Elizabeth Warren, are really unhappy. She called parts of the deal, quote, "really bad" because of the work requirements for people seeking food relief, concessions on student debt repayments, climate change, and no new taxes on the wealthy. What is the administration's message to progressives like Warren, Bernie Sanders, who will soon be voting on this?
RAMAMURTI: Look. As the president has said, this is a compromise. And a compromise means that nobody gets exactly what they want. There are certainly elements of this agreement where we share some of these concerns, where we think that if it were up to us, we wouldn't have included it, but they were priorities for the Republican Party. And in a world where we have divided government, the deal is going to have to reflect that reality.
I think ultimately, the president felt like, No. 1, we needed to have an agreement that took the possibility of a default off the table, which this deal does. No. 2, it was really important to him to protect Social Security, protect Medicare, protect Medicaid, all of which were under attack by the Republicans in their initial offer here, and the deal protects those things. And No. 3, this really helps preserve the economic progress we've made over the last two-plus years of this presidency. Remember; we've gained nearly 13 million jobs under the president's watch. The unemployment rate is the lowest it's been since 1969. We want to make sure that that economic progress can continue, the record-setting investments that the president has secured in his first two years continue to go about the country, and this deal preserves all of that. So we certainly respect the opinion of every member of Congress, but we think that this is a good, fair deal.
FADEL: Do you see these as temporary concessions or something the administration plans to try to recover in future legislation?
RAMAMURTI: Well, yes. I think it at least opens the door or it leaves open the possibility for changes in the future, of course. For example, some of the reductions in funding for the IRS - something that we didn't necessarily agree with - of course doesn't foreclose the possibility of adding more money for that department in the future.
But I think crucially, even in the short term, what this bill does is it allows us to continue to advance the priorities that the president had over the last two years. On the IRS funding, for example, while there's a small reduction, the Treasury Department and the IRS remain confident that with the funding that we still have, we'll be able to continue to offer much better service to taxpayers. We'll continue to be able to step up our enforcement of tax evasion on the wealthy and big corporations who've previously been able to evade some of their tax obligations. We're still going to be able to pursue our core priorities. So this is a deal that reflects the realities of divided government, a Republican-controlled House. But ultimately, we think it's a good, fair deal that protects the president's key priorities.
FADEL: What do you say to Democrats that say you never should've negotiated at all in connection to cuts with the debt ceiling?
RAMAMURTI: Well, I certainly understand those views. I think the president feels like it was important to take the possibility of default off the table in a definitive way. You know, Congress has acted 78 times previously in this country's history to suspend or increase the debt ceiling. That is the foolproof method of addressing this. And in order to get that, the president needed to sit down with his counterparts in the House.
Ultimately, I think what we got here was a good, fair agreement that while taking the possibility of default off the table also was able to secure the president's key priorities. So every year, you have to do a negotiation over the budget. We did one last year with Democrats and Republicans, came out with a fair deal. And we think, ultimately, the deal that the president secured is very similar to the ones we've gotten in the past.
FADEL: Before I let you go, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says with the passage of this bill, he made history. Do you see it that way?
RAMAMURTI: Well, I think that there were important priorities for the president and important priorities for the speaker reflected in this deal. We think that we have secured a level of funding for domestic programs that allows us to continue to pursue our priorities. We were glad to see the continued funding for veterans' medical care. And, as I said, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid - no cuts to those programs, as the Republicans initially wanted. So we think we were able to secure some of our key priorities. And if the speaker thinks that he's gotten what he's wanted to get out of this, that's why you see bipartisan support for the deal in both the House and hopefully in the Senate.
FADEL: Bharat Ramamurti is the deputy director of the National Economic Council. Thank you for your time.
RAMAMURTI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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