On Saturday, President Joe Biden saw his work to extend the debt ceiling and avoid the nation defaulting come to fruition as he signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law. But does he walk away from the compromise as a winner?
Tony Smith, a political science and law professor at UC Irvine, joined KNX In Depth’s Charles Feldman and Rob Archer to discuss whether or not this will be seen as a win for Biden’s presidency.
Smith shared that while some on both sides of the aisle were not in favor of the legislation, the majority were, a sign of government functioning how it is intended.
The professor said everything is now set to have the government operate smoothly, even with the “sort of drama queen-lead-up to ‘Are we going to default?’”
Looking back at his campaign, Smith pointed to Biden saying he was going to be a “bipartisan president,” and this legislation is another sign that he meant what he said.
“His biggest bills, including this one, have been bipartisan,” Smith said.
So, who gets the win in this round, Speaker Kevin McCarthy or Biden?
“If you want to chalk up a win, look and see who voted for it,” Smith said. “You’ll see more Democrats voted for the bill in both the House and Senate than Republicans.”
However, Smith says that this doesn’t mean McCarthy is the loser of the two, as he is continuing to fight his own battles with those in his party.
“He’s got a section of his coalition that is just ungovernable,” Smith said. “They wanted to default. It doesn’t matter that the Constitution says the United States has to pay its bills. It doesn’t matter that raising the debt ceiling is all about funding stuff that Congress approved years ago.”
While Smith says it would be best if “we didn’t run up to the cliff,” seeing the federal government working as it should is a nice thing to celebrate.
“These are some pretty big wins,” he said.
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