‘No One Gets Everything They Want’ on Debt Ceiling Deal, Budget Director Says

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (R) speaks as Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young looks on during the daily briefing at the White House on May 30, 2023. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 resulted from a good-faith effort on both sides of the negotiating table to hammer out a solution to the debt ceiling crisis that would avoid a default.

That’s a good outcome, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, even though some may be disappointed with the result.

“This agreement represents a compromise, which means no one gets everything they want and hard choices had to be made. Negotiations require give and take. That’s the responsibility of governing,” Young told reporters on May 30.

Rank and File Complaints

Young and Steve Ricchetti, a presidential adviser, met almost constantly over the past two weeks to find common ground with Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who represented House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

When details of the plan were announced on May 28, it drew criticism from members of Congress who believed both President Joe Biden and McCarthy had given too much ground to their opposition.

Some members of the House Freedom Caucus complained that McCarthy failed to leverage Republican unity to make extensive fiscal reforms.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to the press after an agreement was reached to avoid a default on the U.S. debt at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 28, 2023. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

“Speaker McCarthy had a mandate from the American people with a powerful negotiation position of a unified Republican party ... to hold the line for the bill that we passed,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said in a May 30 press event, referring to the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed by the Republican-controlled House in April.

Perry, chairman of the caucus, said the bipartisan deal negotiated by McCarthy “totally fails to deliver.”

“The Republican conference right now has been torn asunder, and we are working hard to try to put it back together again this weekend by making sure that this bill gets stopped,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said.

McCarthy had maintained that his primary aims in negotiating with the president were to permit no increase in the debt ceiling unless accompanied by spending cuts and to reject any move to increase taxes.

“Everything else is open for negotiations,” the speaker said.

Common Ground

The agreement rests on the middle ground between the parties, Young said.

“Individual people have issues with different parts of the bill,” Young said. “I have to look at what was our ultimate goal. And we are in a divided government. This is what happens in a divided government. They get to have an opinion, and we get to have an opinion. And all things [being] equal, I think this compromise agreement is reasonable for both sides.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stressed the need for give and take at the outset of negotiations.

“Divided government is not unusual in this country. We’ve had divided government more often than not since World War II. When the American people elect a divided government, they’re saying, ‘You guys need to get together and figure out how to solve the big problems,’” McConnell said during an April 26 speech on the Senate floor.

The compromise solution protects Biden’s priorities, which are to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States by avoiding default and to ensure that any spending cuts do not hurt hardworking Americans, Young said. And it allows Republicans their primary aim in curbing spending.

“The American people came out ahead,” Young said when asked whether the president fared better than the speaker in the negotiations.

“If you get into who won and who didn’t, you’ve lost already when you’re talking about default. It is the American people who won today.”