on the debt. when president obama was knew that they had to avoid a default on the debt, so we all knew there would be some kind of solution worked out with the republicans john boehner, and there was. it was a compromise in which, at the time, president obama was forced to give up much more to republican speaker of the house john boehner who was measurably better at his job than kevin mccarthy, who got next to nothing in these negotiations from joe biden. this was constantly portrayed, including by me, as kevin mccarthy using the debt ceiling to force joe biden to compromise, but last week, i finally begin to see it for what it really turned out to be, which was joe biden using the debt ceiling to force kevin mccarthy to compromise. and what we discovered in this negotiation, and what all of the republicans discovered, including marjorie taylor greene, is that republicans are afraid of defaulting on the
negotiate the debt ceiling in agreement with a republican speaker of the house. i want to support the legislation that is on the floor today. and then i support it without hesitation, reservation or trepidation. not because it is perfect. but in divided government, we have course cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. and president biden did an incredibly good job under difficult circumstances. in protecting some key priorities and values for the well-being of the american people. democratic leader of the house representatives hakeem jeffries is one of the serious people who knows how to govern. some of his democratic members of the house who voted against the bill and some democratic senators who will probably vote
and only 46 democrats voted against it. more democrats supported this bill and republicans, because this was a win for democrats. that is what it was. you house of representatives voted not just to raise the debt ceiling, but to actually eliminate the debt ceiling for two years. for the rest of president biden s first term, for the rest of this congressional term, the democrats will not have to face the get ceiling again before they face another election. this was not an yield is c thing to achieve. republicans could ve assisted on only a six-month extension. and that at ceiling. one year, so that they could come back one year again, one year from now and pound joe biden again in a negotiation
discharge petition, and they could pass it. the democrats were trying to find those five republicans and the republicans were very afraid that they would find those pipe republicans, and that put all the more pressure on kevin mccarthy to reach a deal with joe biden, the kind of deal kevin mccarthy said he would never make. joe biden is the most experienced president who has ever had to negotiate a debt ceiling bill. negotiating on the debt ceiling is a 24 century phenomenon that only two presidents have really had to do, president obama and president at the president side, throughout this and negotiation, was his highly respected director of the office and budget, jelani young. she previously worked on the appropriations committee suspected credibility with republicans, including kevin mccarthy. also on the presidents side in this negotiations was gene sperling, who first worked on economic policy in the white house under president bill
gamesmanship over the debt ceiling. never. he cooperated with democratic presidents and republican presidents, democratic majority leaders, and the senate, to make sure that they could get that ceiling increases without even requiring a 60 vote threshold in the senate. that is unthinkable today. because the republicans in congress mostly behave like logan roy s spoiled children. you are not serious people. joe biden would love to have had that logan roy moment with republicans. democrats would love to have that moment. but joe biden can t do that, he can t walk out of the room like that. because republicans control the house of representatives. and so joe biden had to