Biden, GOP reach debt-ceiling deal

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an "agreement in principle" to raise the nation's legal debt ceiling, but now Congress must rush to approve the spending cuts package in a matter of days to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.

The agreement risks angering both Democratic and Republican sides as lawmakers Sunday begin to unpack the the concessions made to compromise. Negotiators agreed to some Republican demands for increased work requirements for recipients of food stamps that had sparked an uproar from House Democrats as a nonstarter. But they stopped short of greater spending cuts overall that Republicans wanted.

Support from both parties will be needed to win congressional approval before a projected June 5 government default on U.S. debts.

The Democratic president and Republican speaker reached the agreement after the two spoke Saturday evening by phone. The country and the world have been watching and waiting for a resolution to a political standoff that threatened the U.S. and global economies.

"The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want," Biden said in a statement late Saturday night. "That's the responsibility of governing," he said.

Biden called the agreement "good news for the American people, because 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."

McCarthy in brief remarks at the Capitol said that "we still have a lot of work to do."

But the Republican speaker said: "I believe this is an agreement in principle that's worthy of the American people."

With the outlines of a deal in place, the legislative package...