Republicans, Democrats & President Reach Agreement On Raising Debt Ceiling

News and wire services are reporting that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have reached agreement with President Barack Obama to raise the limit on U.S. borrowing, forestall a default, and avoid a shutdown of the government. The plan does not include any tax increases and is claimed to cut cut about $1 trillion from U.S. spending.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitchell McConnell endorsed the plan. President Obama added his support for the deal. House Speaker John Boehner, in a conference call with Republican members of the lower chamber, said the deal was a good one that met the demands of all Republicans. The president received enough of a debt ceiling increase so as to not have to face this issue directly before the 2012 elections. The Republicans received the spending cuts without taxes being increase.

President Obama did his asked and answered his own question in his endorsement of the plan, "Is this the deal I would have preferred? No!" But he added: "It will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of American. An it will allow us to lift the cloud of debt and uncertainty."

The Senate and House may vote tomorrow on the proposed plan. Unfortunately the lame street media and the White House continue to insist that the default will occur on Tuesday and it id did it would affect payment of social security and the military which it would not have done. However, it is the Treasury Secretary who works for President Obama verses the American people who would decide such actions.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who has been an outspoken critic of the Senate democrats failure to establish a budget, said about the pending compromise on the debt ceiling before it was officially reached, "The good news is that we are finally cutting spending, and our Republican leadership deserves credit for fighting hard to achieve this level of cuts given the fierce resistance from Washington’s Democrat majority and the president’s veto pen. No progress would have been possible but for the voters who rose up last election and kicked so many big spenders out of office. But much more work remains. Sound, lasting reform cannot be achieved through special committee or secret meetings, but will require the vigorous participation of the full Senate and the public we serve.”

Expect lots of press releases on both sides of the issue tomorrow as the party leaderships focus on securing votes for the plan. Presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has already declared she will not vote for any bill that raises the debt ceiling. Finally, we all know the devil is in the details and as in the past we will not know the details until after we see the actual plan and experience the consequences.

Also, the above "deal" does not mean that our national credit rating will not be down graded. It still may be downgraded. There are many questions that need to be asked beginning with who are these people doing the credit ratings? Were they previously in bed with some of those involved in the financial bailouts? Who are the people who will benefit by any change in credit rating?

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