美国国家公共电台 NPR--'This is a compromise': How the White House is defending the debt ceiling bill

'This is a compromise': How the White House is defending the debt ceiling bill

Transcript¹

House lawmakers passed a bill to suspend the debt ceiling, enabling the U.S. to pay off its bills while also cutting federal spending going forward.

The Fiscal² Responsibility Act of 2023 passed the House in a bipartisan 314-117 vote Wednesday night, with just days to spare and concessions³ on both sides, as NPR has reported.

It establishes spending caps for the federal budget and implements⁴ policy changes, including clawing back some $27 billion in funding to federal agencies intended to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and phasing in higher age limits for work requirements on certain federal safety net programs, like food stamps.

President Biden called it a "critical step forward to prevent a first-ever default," and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said lawmakers "made history" with the scope of their savings⁵.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected a total deficit⁶ reduction of $1.5 trillion over the next decade, though that doesn't take into account several "agreed-upon adjustments" that would increase federal spending in the coming months.

Bharat Ramamurti, the deputy director of the National Economic Council — which advises the president on economic policy — says the administration's view is that the bill takes the possibility of default off the table, protects entitlement programs like social security and Medicare, and helps preserve economic progress from the last few years.

"We think we were able to secure some of our key priorities, and if the speaker thinks that he got what he's wanted to get out of this, that's why you see bipartisan support for the deal both in the House and hopefully the Senate," Ramamurti told Morning Edition's Leila Fadel on Thursday.

The legislation heads now to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which will need to approve it by Monday to get it to the president's desk and keep the U.S. from defaulting. Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle⁷ have said they aim to pass it as quickly as possible, ideally by the end of the week.

That doesn't mean all senators are on board with the bill (which needs 60 votes to pass). Some progressives — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — have slammed the concessions on things like work requirements, student debt repayments⁸, climate change and taxes on the wealthy.

Ramamurti says that while the administration respects the opinion of every member of Congress, "we think this is a good, fair deal."

"As the president has said, this is a compromise, and a compromise means that nobody gets exactly what they want," he adds. "There are certainly elements of this agreement where we share some of these concerns ... but they were priorities for the Republican party, and in a world where we have divided government the deal's going to have to reflect that reality."

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

It at least opens the door or leaves open the possibility for changes in the future, of course. For example, some of the reductions in funding for the [Internal Revenue Service], something that we didn't necessarily agree with, of course doesn't foreclose the possibility of adding more money for that department in the future.

But I think crucially, even in the short term, what this bill does is it allows us to continue to advance the priorities the president had over the last two years. On the IRS funding, for example, while there's a small reduction, the Treasury⁹ Department and IRS remain confident that with the funding we still have we'll be able to continue to offer much better service to taxpayers¹⁰, we'll continue to be able to step up our enforcement of tax evasion¹¹ on the wealthy and big corporations who previously¹² have been able to evade¹³ some of their tax obligations.

On those who argue Biden shouldn't have negotiated at all

I certainly understand those views. I think the president feels like it was important to take the possibility of default off the table in a definitive¹⁴ way. Congress has acted 78 times previously in this country's history to suspend or increase the debt ceiling, that is the foolproof method of addressing this and in order to get that the president needed to sit down with his counterparts in the House ... Every year you have to do a negotiation¹⁵ over the budget; we did one last year with Democrats¹⁶ and Republicans and came out with a fair deal and we think ultimately the deal that the president secured is very similar to the ones we've gotten in the past.

On the historic significance of the bill

I think that there were important priorities for the president and important priorities for the speaker reflected in this deal. We think that we have secured a level of funding for domestic programs that allows us to continue to pursue our priorities. We were glad to see the continued funding for veterans' medical care and ... Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, no cuts to those programs, as the Republicans initially¹⁷ wanted.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

3 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

4 implements   

n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• Primitive man hunted wild animals with crude stone implements. 原始社会的人用粗糙的石器猎取野兽。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• They ordered quantities of farm implements. 他们订购了大量农具。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

8 repayments   

偿还，报答，偿付的钱物( repayment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The repayments of the loan are spread over 10 years. 贷款可在十年内分期偿还。
• The repayments of the loan are spread over 25 years. 这笔贷款分摊二十五年偿还。

9 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

10 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

11 evasion   

n.逃避，偷漏(税)

参考例句：

• The movie star is in prison for tax evasion.那位影星因为逃税而坐牢。
• The act was passed as a safeguard against tax evasion.这项法案旨在防止逃税行为。

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

13 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

14 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

15 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

16 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。