On Sunday, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a final agreement on a deal to raise the country’s debt ceiling just days ahead of a potential first-ever government default.
According to the Associated Press, the “Democratic president and Republican speaker spoke late in the day as negotiators rushed to draft and post the bill text for review, with compromises that neither the hard-right or left flank is likely to support. Instead, the leaders are working to gather backing from the political middle as Congress hurries toward votes before a June 5 deadline to avert a damaging federal default.”
“Good news,” Biden said Sunday night at the White House. “The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in our nation’s history, [and] takes the threat of a catastrophic default off the table.”
Biden urged legislators from both parties to come together to pass the bill quickly.
“The speaker and I made clear from the start that the only way forward was a bipartisan agreement,” he said.
McCarthy touted the final deal during a interview with Shannon Bream on Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” saying that it is the biggest spending cut “Congress has ever voted for in that process.”
“Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought that we would be able to today,” McCarthy said. “I’ll debate this bill with anybody. Is it everything I wanted? No, because we don’t control all of it. But it is the biggest rescission in history. It is the biggest cut Congress has ever voted for in that process.”