White House strikes deal with GOP to raise debt ceiling

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The White House and House Republicans have an agreement in principle on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cap spending, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed Saturday, moving the nation one step back from the brink of a historic default.

The agreement in principle was reached by President Joe Biden and McCarthy during a phone call Saturday, a source familiar with their call said. Now both leaders face the tall task of selling the deal to their allies in both chambers of Congress, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate. The deal must get passed before June 5 — the crucial date when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the US will no longer be able to pay its bills.

“After weeks of negotiations, we have come to an agreement in principle. We still have a lot of work to do but I believe this is an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people,” McCarthy said during a brief statement to reporters.

If the deal ends up passing through Congress and being signed into law by Biden before that so-called X date, the White House and House Republicans will have avoided an unprecedented economic crisis. A default by the US government, which has never happened, could spark a global recession and the loss of millions of jobs – a scenario that loomed over a last-minute rush of holiday weekend negotiations.

House GOP leaders were planning to brief all members on the state of negotiations later in the evening, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and the text of the deal will be reviewed overnight by both sides to ensure it lines up with the tentative agreement. 

Despite the deal in principle, new issues could easily crop up at each step along the way, and each step has the potential to be time-consuming, running out the clock ahead of the debt limit deadline early next month. Stiff opposition is expected from both the left and right. That means it’s going to require an intense whipping operation – and support from both sides of the aisle – to get the bill over the finish line.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN earlier Saturday that a provision to impose new work requirements for certain social safety net programs had remained a final sticking point.

Republicans had been pushing the issue hard, saying beneficiaries of programs, such as food stamps, who do not have dependents should be forced to follow new rules. Democrats, however, had cast that idea as an attack on poor people. 

McCarthy had arrived at the US Capitol on Saturday morning after his top Republican negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, had worked late into the night drafting the final details of a deal from the speaker’s office.

MORE ON THE DEBT CEILING 

Asked by CNN if he was confident he could get the full House GOP Caucus behind him following an agreement, McCarthy said: “Do you ever think you’re going to get every single member to vote for it? I didn’t get every single member to vote for the first one. I didn’t get every single member to vote for me for speaker.” 

But McCarthy maintained he’d be able to get the majority of House Republicans on board, telling CNN, “I don’t think I’ll have any problem with that.”

CNN