The time pressure was great. And in the end, the political will to avert Washington's impending default prevailed. Following in the footsteps of the House of Representatives, the Senate also voted in favor of the bill that suspends the national debt ceiling in the United States until early 2025 late Thursday night. By a vote of 63 to 36, senators approved the bill, which had previously been agreed upon by President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. Now the bill can be submitted to Biden for signature before the federal government would have run out of money on June 5.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America, based in Washington.

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This ended a week-long nail-biter that would have paralyzed Washington and plunged the global economy into crisis. In the end, 44 Democrats and 17 Republicans, as well as two independent senators, voted in the second chamber of Congress for the bill, which had already found a broad majority in the first chamber on Wednesday evening. The "no" votes came from four Democrats, 31 Republicans and one independent senator. In return for the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling, the Democrats had to accept that government spending will be frozen for the next two years. This ensured that the federal government remained solvent. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned that her department would otherwise have had to announce insolvency on Monday.

The Republicans fought back for weeks

After the two votes in Congress, the president must now sign the law. In the United States, Congress sets a debt ceiling at irregular intervals and thus determines how much money the state can borrow. As in 2011, the partisan dispute threatened to lead the country to the abyss in terms of fiscal policy, as Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, had warned.

The Republicans, who have had a majority in the House of Representatives since the beginning of the year, resisted for weeks to agree to an increase in the debt ceiling. They demanded significant cuts in government spending. They argued that government spending had gotten out of control and had reached irresponsible levels. The Democrats, in turn, accused the Republicans of taking the country hostage.

Biden and McCarthy had struggled in tough negotiations for a bipartisan compromise in recent weeks and presented a deal only last weekend. This provides that the size of the federal budget, which the Democrats actually wanted to increase under Biden, will be effectively frozen. To this end, the budgets of many federal agencies and ministries are being adjusted. The Republicans were also able to enforce that recipients of certain social benefits must prove a job. The Democrats actually wanted to increase government revenues by taxing the rich more heavily. The Republicans, on the other hand, resisted.

There is criticism of the compromise in both parties. In the left wing of the Democrats, the cuts in the social sector were lamented. In the right wing of the Republicans, there is criticism that the cuts do not go far enough.