House Republicans Pass Debt Ceiling Bill Despite Opposition.

House Republicans passed a bill to raise the US government's legal debt ceiling by $1.5tn in exchange for spending restrictions, a move that Speaker Kevin McCarthy hopes will force President Joe Biden to negotiate and prevent a federal default this summer. Biden has threatened to veto the Republican package, which has almost no chance of passing the Democratic Senate anyway, and the president has so far refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling. The bill passed by a razor-thin 217-215 margin, and the president and Congress will now try to work out a compromise that would allow the nation’s debt, now at $31tn, to be lifted to allow further borrowing and stave off a fiscal crisis.