Boehner urges Republicans to support shutdown, debt ceiling deal

Just a day before the federal government reaches its borrowing limit, Senate leaders announced on Wednesday that they have struck a deal to reopen the government and avert a potentially cataclysmic default on U.S. debt payments.

The final package, unveiled by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor, would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt ceiling through Feb. 7.

The bill would also strengthen income verification requirements for those who sign up for insurance under Obamacare, and it would provide time for both parties to appoint lawmakers to a conference committee to reconcile a broad budget resolution. The panel would be led by Budget Committee heads Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, and it would be required to announce the result of its negotiations by Dec. 13.

“This has been a long, challenging few weeks for Congress and for the country," McConnell said. “It’s my hope that today we can put some of the most urgent issues behind us."

The Senate plans to take up the bill first with a vote planned late this afternoon, a senior Democratic aide said, and the House is expected to vote around 11 p.m. ET.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner met with members of the Republican conference on Wednesday afternoon, where he asked them to support the plan and announced that he and other members of GOP leadership planned to vote for it.

According to lawmakers present in the room, Boehner told them Republicans would "live to fight another day" and he received a standing ovation for his efforts before and during the government shutdown.

Earlier on Wednesday, there was concern that Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who staged a 21-hour speech on the Senate floor to protest the federal health care law, would use a procedural tactic to block a vote on the deal. But after the deal was announced, Cruz told reporters that he would not move to deter the bill's progress through the chamber.

"I have no objections to the timing, and the reason is simple. There's nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days," Cruz said. "The outcome will be the same. Every senator, every member of the House is going to have to make a decision where he or she stands, but there's no benefit. I've never had any intention of delaying the timing of this vote."

At the White House, the deal drew a warm welcome from President Barack Obama, who "applauds" Reid and McConnell "for working together to forge this compromise" and hopes Congress will pass it "as soon as possible," White House press secretary Jay Carney said. 

“He looks forward to Congress acting so that he can sign legislation that will reopen the government and will remove this threat from our economy," Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.

The announcement of a deal was also good news for stocks: The S&P 500 index jumped more than 20 points, and other market indicators showed signs of continued confidence in the federal government's ability to pay its bills on time.

The Treasury Department says the U.S. government is close to running out of borrowing authority, which it says will take place at midnight Thursday into Friday.

Because the cash-strapped U.S. government needs to borrow cash to pay for existing programs, failure to raise the debt limit means that not long after Thursday the government will not be able to pay all of its bills.

That raises the prospect of a default on America’s public debt as well as on other obligations such as Social Security payments, which would send a shock wave through the fragile global economy. Independent economists have warned that the international financial system’s reliance on the American economy (and U.S. Treasury bills) means that the global economy could face a fresh contraction, possibly a severe recession.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/compromise-or-collapse--lawmakers-eye-breakthrough-on-debt--spending-150123572.html
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