Elections

Biden Uses Debt-Ceiling Deal as Launch Pad for 2024 Reelection

  • Biden ceded much of his dream budget in debt-limit compromise
  • Democrats, especially progressives, are unhappy with the bill
Joe Biden during a national address in the Oval Office of the White House on June 2.Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

President Joe Biden is seizing on the debt limit deal he negotiated as an opening argument for reelection, though he faces a tough sell with voters who are skeptical of his performance in office.

The agreement mitigated proposed Republican cuts to anti-poverty benefits, reduced government spending far less than the GOP demanded, maintained Biden’s first-term legislative victories — the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure plan and the Chips Act — and pushed the next debt ceiling episode until 2025, after the presidential election.