Schumer on Debt Ceiling Raise: Americans 'Can Breathe Easy'

President Biden has a new bill on his desk to sign. The legislation provides for a $2.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, bringing that number to $31.4 trillion and avoiding a first-ever federal default right at the Wednesday deadline warned of by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, reports Reuters. The Democrat-driven measure passed first in the Senate on Tuesday by a 50-49 vote, and then in the House in the early morning hours on Wednesday by a vote of 221 to 209, per the New York Times. Just one Republican congressman, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, voted with his Democratic counterparts on the bill, which is set to cover the government's financial obligations past the midterms and into early 2023.

"The American people can breathe easy and rest assured there will not be a default," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The Senate vote was expedited after Schumer, a Democrat, and GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached a special deal last week that would allow for the bill to pass by a simple majority vote instead of the 60 votes typically needed to pass legislation in the Senate, with no threat of a filibuster or other Republican efforts to block it. "This is about paying debt accumulated by both parties, so I'm pleased Republicans and Democrats came together," Schumer noted, per Reuters.

Some Dems praised McConnell for working with Schumer on the unusual fast-track deal, which staves off a default that the Times notes would be "catastrophic" to the economy. Yellen had earlier noted that if Washington couldn't pay its bills, the US would likely slip into a recession, notes CNBC. Some of McConnell's GOP colleagues, however, aren't happy about the move.

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"I'm sure this vicious tactic ... has not seen its last use," Utah Sen. Mike Lee griped. But McConnell himself made sure to point out that only Dems, for the most part, would be voting in favor of the debt ceiling increase, a fact that Republicans are sure to dangle in attacking Democrats during the 2022 midterm cycle. "If they jam through another reckless taxing and spending spree, this massive debt increase will just be the beginning," McConnell noted. (More debt ceiling stories.)