Biden and McCarthy's debt-ceiling deal is a 'turd-sandwich,' GOP Rep. Chip Roy says — and he's joining a growing number of conservative lawmakers who say they'll vote against it with the US just days from default

• A growing number of conservative lawmakers are opposing Biden and McCarthy's debt-ceiling deal.
• They argued it does not include enough spending cuts, with Rep. Chip Roy calling it a "turd-sandwich."

A growing number of conservative lawmakers aren't happy with the deal Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy reached with President Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling.

On Saturday night, McCarthy and Biden finally announced they came to an agreement on debt ceiling legislation, called the Fiscal Responsibility Act, after months of stalemate. And in the end, both sides had to compromise — McCarthy achieved far less than the $4.5 trillion amount he initially proposed. And Biden did not get the clean debt-ceiling deal he wanted, budging on provisions including strengthened work requirements for welfare programs and codifying the end of the student-loan payment pause.

Both Biden and McCarthy said over the weekend that this deal is the best option for Americans.

"The agreement also represents a compromise, which means no one got everything they want. But that's the responsibility of governing," Biden said during Sunday remarks. "And this is a deal that's good news for the American people. The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis: a default for the first time in our nation's history — an economic recession, retirement accounts devastated, millions of jobs lost."

And McCarthy wrote on Twitter on Saturday that "I just got off the phone with the president a bit ago. After he wasted time and refused to negotiate for months, we've come to an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people."

But many conservative lawmakers aren't on board. GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas called the agreement a "turd-sandwich" on Monday because it did not include the $4.5 trillion in spending cuts in McCarthy's debt-ceiling bill that passed the House last month. In a Twitter graphic, Roy compared the two bills and expressed opposition toward the "minor" work requirements and permitting reforms, along with no mention of overturning student-debt relief in the agreement.

Roy isn't alone in his opposition. Over 15 Republicans have so far said they'll vote against the bill, including Reps. Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Nancy Mace. Boebert wrote on Twitter that "supporting this deal is stabbing the American people directly in the back," and Mace wrote that "Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can't find his pants. I'm voting NO on the debt ceiling debacle because playing the DC game isn't worth selling out our kids and grandkids." She elaborated on her reasoning in a Twitter thread.

Meanwhile, the agreement has already won support from the New Democrat Coalition, a centrist group of nearly 100 Democrats. The coalition's leadership wrote in a Monday statement that "compromise depends on give and take and this bill required concessions from both sides. Defaulting on our debt, as some radical Republicans suggest we should, is not an option—doing so would plunge the United States into an unprecedented crisis that would likely lose up to seven million jobs, wipe out $10 trillion in household wealth, and irreparably damage the economic and political power of the U.S. dollar on the world stage."

"New Dems will remain in close consultation with our partners in the administration to ensure that this bill gets to President Biden's desk without unnecessary delay to protect the full faith and credit of the United States," the statement said.

The bill is set to go through House committee deliberations Tuesday afternoon, and it's unclear if either party will make substantial changes to the agreement before passage. Lawmakers need to act quickly with a default on the nation's debt coming as early as June 5.