With the debt ceiling agreement in hand, McCarthy and Biden turn to the task of selling it

Mr Biden told reporters he was confident the deal would reach his desk and that he spoke to Mr McCarthy on Sunday afternoon “to make sure all the Ts were ticked and the Is’s were dotted”.

“The deal prevents the worst possible crisis, a default for the first time in our country’s history,” Mr. Biden said later in the day, adding, “It also protects important priorities, achievements and values ​​that the Democrats in Congress and I stand for.” fought a long time.” and hard for it.”

Mr Biden said it was an open question whether the deal would get through Congress. “I have no idea if he has the votes,” he said of Mr McCarthy. “I assume he does.”

Nonetheless, the deal has met with fierce criticism from both political parties.

“Horrible policy, absolutely horrible policy,” Washington Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to labor requirements for food stamps and other charitable programs. “That’s what I said directly to the President when he called me last week on Wednesday that this is to tell the poor people and those in need that we don’t trust them.”

Ms. Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she would read the bill before deciding whether to support it.

Some on the right had already ruled this out before seeing the details.

“No one claiming to be a Conservative could justify a YES vote,” Rep. Bob Good, a Virginia Republican and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, wrote on Twitter. North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop posted his reaction to news of the deal: a vomit emoji.

Russell T. Vought, President Trump’s influential former Treasury Secretary who now heads the Center for Renewing America, encouraged right-wing Republicans to use their seats on the House Rules Committee — which Mr. McCarthy granted them when he struggled to get their votes win speakers – to block the deal. “Conservatives should fight this with all their might,” he said.