Biden and McCarthy finalize US debt deal, confident it will pass

WASHINGTON, USA—President Joe Biden and Republican leader McCarthy said Sunday that a final bipartisan deal to raise the US debt ceiling—and avoid a cataclysmic default—now heads to Congress, which will need to pass the agreement before the government starts running out of money.

The compromise after weeks of intense talks offers a path back from the precipice, even as the clock is still ticking down to the June 5 “X-date” when the Treasury estimates there might not be enough cash to pay bills and debts.

“I think it’s a really important step forward,” Biden said in a brief appearance before media at the White House, urging “both chambers (of Congress) to pass that agreement.”

“It takes the threat of a catastrophic default of the table, protects our hardearned and historic economic recovery, and... represents a compromise that means no one got everything they want,” Biden added.

The White House said Biden and McCarthy spoke earlier in the day as they struggled to avert a financial precipice which threatened to throw millions of people out of jobs and risk a global meltdown.

McCarthy, for his part, voiced optimism that the bipartisan deal could get through Congress despite skepticism from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In a statement later Sunday, the speaker and other Republican congressional leaders touted the agreement as a “historic series of wins.”