WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden and top Republican Kevin McCarthy have reached a preliminary agreement to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion, ending a months-long stalemate.
Here are some quotes from the announcement and reactions to the news:
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
“Earlier tonight, Speaker McCarthy and I reached an agreement in principle on the budget.
“It is an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for working people and growing the economy for all. And the agreement protects my and Congressional Democrats’ key priorities and legislative achievements.
“The agreement is a compromise, which means that not everyone gets what they want. That is the responsibility of government.
“And this agreement is good news for the American people because it prevents what could have been a catastrophic default and led to an economic recession, devastated retirement accounts and the loss of millions of jobs.
“The next day, our negotiating teams will finalize the legislative text and the agreement will go to the United States House and Senate. I strongly urge both chambers to immediately approve the agreement.”
REPUBLICAN HOUSE SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY
“I just called the president – I spoke to him twice today – and 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 worthy of the American people.
“It has historic cuts in spending, the ensuing reforms that will move people out of poverty into the labor market, reining in government overreach — there are no new taxes, no new government programs.
“There is a lot more in the bill. We have more work to do tonight to finish all the writing of it”…
“I expect to finish writing the bill, contact the White House and speak to the president again tomorrow afternoon, and then post the text of it tomorrow, and then we vote on it on Wednesday.”
DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE TED LIU
“I learned tonight that there is an agreement in principle between the White House and House Republicans. This was a Republican-made crisis. It is up to the House Republicans to defuse that crisis. hearing the disagreement, in principle we will have government officials provide that information to the Democratic members of our caucus.”
REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE BOB GOOD
“I’ve heard the ‘deal’ is for a $4 trillion debt limit increase. If that’s true, I don’t need to hear anything else. No one claiming to be conservative can justify a YES vote.”
REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE ON TWITTER
Hearing @SpeakerMcCarthy’s soon-to-be deal on the debt limit will reclaim $400 MILLION from the CDC “Global Health Fund”, which sends money abroad to countries like China.
“Here are a few other countries that will no longer have access to this tax money: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cambodia, China, Ivory Coast, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Postal, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia , Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“Also on the chopping block is nearly $1.5 BILLION from the CDC’s Vaccine Distribution and Monitoring Program.”
DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE JUDY CHU
“I’ll see if there are these increased work requirements for the poor. I thought that was the worst part of their (Republican) proposals because that would only serve to hurt the poor.”
“If we didn’t reach a deal… the average American would clearly see a hit… we had to come to some kind of conclusion here.”
Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Ismail Shakil and Gram Slattery; Edited by Heather Timmons and David Gregorio