Biden and House GOPers Strike Tentative Deal to Stave Off Default

As the deadline for the nation’s first-ever default looms, key White House and GOP negotiators finally struck a deal in principle to raise the debt ceiling and cap federal spending Saturday.

The past few weeks have brought chaos between the White House and Republican lawmakers as fears of an economic crisis have spiraled across the political arenas. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Friday that the department will run out of cash to pay U.S obligations by June 5, raising the alarm on the quickly-ticking clock both parties have to iron out a deal and move it through Congress.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, who have continued to butt heads on the issue, talked through their remaining points of tension Saturday evening and gave their thumbs up on the new agreement. In a tweet, McCarthy said it was “worthy of the American people.”

In a statement, Biden hailed the deal as “good news for the American people,” noting that it “prevents what could have been a catastrophic default and would have led to an economic recession, retirement accounts devastated, and millions of jobs lost.”

He conceded, however, that the agreement is “a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want.”

Under the proposed deal, which is still in the works, the current $31.4 trillion debt limit would be raised for the next two years—just in time for the next president to pick up the slack, according to The New York Times. It also “claws back unspent COVID funds” and “blocks Biden’s new tax schemes,” McCarthy said in a tweet.

“Republicans are poised to deliver big, consequential change in Washington,” McCarthy tweeted. “Soon, we will vote for a responsible debt limit agreement that stops Democrats' reckless spending.”

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