Biden announces debt limit agreement, lawmakers express worries.

President Joe Biden is championing the new bipartisan budget agreement to avoid a default on the national debt, saying it “prevents the worst possible crisis.”

The administration and House Republican leaders looked to garner support for a tentative deal to increase the country’s borrowing limit amid ballooning government debt following weeks of intense negotiations.

Following the announcement that both sides reached an “agreement in principle,” the president said the deal takes “the threat of catastrophic default off the table” and ensures the nation’s economic recovery moves ahead.

Biden repeated the White House talking point that the agreement is a compromise in a divided government, meaning that “no one gets everything they want.”

“But that’s the responsibility of governing,” he said, adding that it keeps Democrats’ key priorities, such as Social Security and Medicare, intact.

The legislation—the Fiscal Responsibility Act—will now head to both chambers of Congress, where the president has urged lawmakers to pass the agreement.

“Let’s keep moving forward on meeting our obligations and building the strongest economy in the history of the world,” he told reporters on May 28.

What Republicans Are Saying

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been vocal in their disappointment about the debt limit deal.

Some Democrats say the president made too many concessions, while several members of the GOP caucus argue that McCarthy gave up too much and failed to attach many of the provisions in the GOP’s proposed “Limit, Save, Grow Act.”

• Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who has been vocal about his displeasure over the negotiations, wrote on Twitter that he thinks Democrats are the winners and “got everything they wanted with this bill and don’t have to defend their reckless spending prior to the 2024 election.”
• Speaking with Fox News on May 28, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) asserted that Republicans are the only party that can restore fiscal sanity to Congress. Still, the deal with the administration “fails to uphold that responsibility,” he said.
• Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) wrote on Twitter that this is another example of “half-baked compromises” and why the federal government faces a $31 trillion national debt.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) said she is confident that the GOP still possesses the momentum in Washington, noting that “this is a game of inches” and urging everyone to read the bill before making a final decision.
• Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) disagreed with some of his colleagues. In an interview with CNN, he called the tentative debt ceiling agreement a “big get for Republicans,” adding that “it’s going to save $1.5 trillion over the course of the next ten years.”

Despite fiscal concerns from many Republicans, the House GOP leadership said the Fiscal Responsibility Act has “secured a historic deal” that will benefit all Americans.

The critical question in the nation’s capital is whether House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has enough votes.

Biden said that he didn’t know whether McCarthy had the votes.

“I expect he does, or I don’t think he would have made the agreement,” Biden said.

McCarthy appears to be confident that he has enough votes after the months-long standoff.

“This is a good strong bill that a majority of Republicans will vote for,” the House speaker told the press on Capitol Hill.

One common complaint from conservative critics is the lack of funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. As part of last year’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” lawmakers gave the tax-collecting agency $80 billion in new funding. However, the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” proposed to slash the new funding by $70 billion.

According to a document obtained from a White House source, the debt limit agreement includes a provision to shift $10 billion in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 “to secure higher resources for non-defense priorities.”