Congress Reaches Deal to Raise Debt Ceiling After Weeks of Negotiations

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy brokered a deal to lift the nation's borrowing limit and avoid default.
The House was set to vote on the bill after it cleared a key committee, though some lawmakers in both parties opposed the compromise.
The agreement aims to suspend the debt limit until 2025 and place caps on discretionary spending for the next two years.
The deal reduces budget deficits by $1.5 trillion over a decade but leaves major drivers of the debt like Social Security and Medicare untouched.
Failure to raise the debt limit could have catastrophic economic consequences, but the recurring standoffs highlight the dysfunctional nature of the process.