President Joe Biden will deliver his first speech in the Oval Office as President behind the Resolute Desk while trying to uphold the bipartisan achievement of preventing the country from defaulting.
The speech is likely to be a winning streak after the House and Senate on Thursday passed the budget agreement Biden negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“For all of the progress we have made over the past few years, it is critical to maintain the full confidence and credit of the United States and enact a budget that will continue to grow our economy and reflect our values as a nation.” , said Biden. according to expanded excerpts released by the White House.
“And that’s why I’m speaking to you tonight.” Report on a crisis averted and what we are doing to protect America’s future. The passage of this budget agreement was crucial. The stakes couldn’t have been higher.’
The deal mandates lump-sum funding for the next fiscal year, with a 1 percent cut the next, while increasing labor requirements for food stamps — but also meeting Biden’s top goal of avoiding a default.
After months of senior financial officials and Wall Street supporters warning of a far-reaching impact on the global economy, Biden will view avoiding this worst-case scenario as victory. But his speech follows Fitch Ratings’ announcement that it would remain “negatively watching” the US, noting that it had bypassed the deadline but was grappling with “repeated political deadlocks”.
President Biden will speak in prime time on Friday to discuss a bipartisan budget agreement aimed at preventing a “catastrophic default,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said
This comes after Biden was able to announce another upbeat jobs report as the economy added 339,999 jobs in May.
Biden, who is seeking re-election, said of the compromise, “No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed.” “We averted an economic crisis and collapse.”
He used the speech to portray himself as a reasonable force who could negotiate a settlement at a time when Republican critics are calling him extreme.
“We’re cutting spending and cutting deficits.” And we’ve protected key priorities, from Social Security to Medicare and Medicaid to veterans and our transformative investments in infrastructure and clean energy.
“The President wanted to make sure he was addressing the American people directly, and he’s going to be addressing the American people for the first time from behind the desk in the Oval Office … during prime time, and he just wanted to do that.” “To make sure that the American people understand the importance of achieving this,” she said.
“The bipartisan budget agreement protects our historic and hard-won economic recovery and all the strides American workers have made over the past two years,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
She said lawmakers from both parties have joined forces to “prevent a catastrophic default and have shown once again that America is a nation that pays its bills and lives up to its obligations.”
“We’ve spent the last few weeks and months talking about averting the catastrophic default and how important it was for the President to do that.” “There’s a gravity like you can all imagine right now,” he said Jean Pierre.
It will be Biden’s first prime-time speech since he announced from the Blue Room balcony that the US conducted an airstrike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The speech comes hours after Biden fell while presenting diplomas to cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
President Joe Biden spoke about the bipartisan budget effort that saved the country from a “catastrophic” potential default
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his group that Republicans had managed to secure a rare cut in government spending while suspending the debt ceiling until January 2025
It will be Biden’s first prime-time speech from the Oval Office as President to the nation
President Joe Biden is helped up after falling during graduation at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. He fell while presenting diplomas to the cadets. One benefit of the Oval Office venue is that it doesn’t leave room for many physical mishaps
Speaker Kevin McCarthy introduced the 99-page bill raising the debt ceiling to prevent the US from defaulting
The seating format, behind the Resolute Desk, surrounded by TV cameras and lighting, and a small contingent of press will prevent such a mishap from happening.
Exactly one year ago, Biden was speaking in prime time at a different White House venue. This came after the gun attack on children and teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Biden is celebrating the debt deal despite criticism from a faction of progressive lawmakers angered by the blanket funding, which amounts to a budget cut. The deal passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 314 to 117, with 46 Democrats and 71 Republicans voting against.
It also includes controversial new job requirements, though many conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives are furious over other program changes that would exempt veterans and the homeless, nearly scuttling the changes.