Establishing the contours of a massive debt deal consumed all of Congress, but filling in the $1.5 trillion details will be the responsibility of a mere dozen lawmakers.
Congress was poised on Tuesday to grant final approval to a deficit-cutting package that will avert a debt default but may not be enough to prevent a damaging downgrade of the top-notch American credit rating.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell displayed his skills as a dealmaker to avert an unprecedented debt default that could have blown a hole in the U.S. economy and stung his party in next year's elections.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he is not sure whether the bitterly fought debt agreement to be considered Tuesday by the Senate will avoid a downgrade of the U.S. top-tier credit rating.
Politicians and lobbyists exhausted from a bruising and tortuous debate over a debt deal are already turning their attention to a dozen-member Congressional "super committee" that will be responsible for laying out some $1.5 trillion in cuts. Will they be able to find them?
The United States is poised to step back from the brink of economic disaster on Tuesday when a bitterly fought deal to cut the budget deficit is expected to clear its final hurdles.
The U.S. is one Senate vote away from averting a federal government default and toward taking a step in the direction of fiscal health: The Senate is expected to vote and pass the bipartisan debt deal legislation Tuesday around noon EDT, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it quickly.
Medicare payments to nursing homes would now be slashed 11.1 percent beginning October 1, 2011. This has led to the health care sector witnessing the first triggers of Medicare hospital reimbursement cuts in lieu of raising the federal debt ceiling.
The House of Representatives on Monday approved an 11th-hour deal to raise the borrowing limit, clearing the biggest hurdle to averting a potentially catastrophic debt default.
The bill, which will cut federal spending by up to $2.4 trillion over 10 years, raises the debt ceiling, and now goes to the Senate, where that chamber is expected to vote on it, and pass it, by Tuesday, late afternoon. If all goes as planned, the bill will be on President Obama's desk, and his signature will avert a default.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.
Leaders from both, major political parties fanned-out across Capitol Hill Monday night to secure votes to pass the bipartisan debt deal bill, which would also raise the debt ceiling, and avert a U.S. Government default. The strongest opposition will occur in the House, but two-chamber passage is expected by 1 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
U.S. health insurance companies must offer women free birth control and other preventive health care services under Obama administration rules released on Monday, a historic decision supported by family planning groups and opposed by conservative groups.
The White House and congressional leaders scrambled for enough support from skeptical lawmakers on Monday to push through an 11th-hour deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and avert a devastating debt default.
The Obama administration announced Monday that private health insurers must pay for an assortment of women's health screenings, counseling and birth control. The benefits will begin on Jan 1, 2013 and will be offered "without cost-sharing" (no co-pay, co-insurance or deductibles).
Leaders of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, came to an agreement after they worked furiously to sell their rank-and-file members on a debt deal reached with President Barack Obama in a bid to end a political 'cat and mouse' chase that nearly undermined Americans faith in their political institutions.
President Barack Obama will continue to push for an extension of the payroll tax cut despite that not being part of a deficit-cutting deal reached by lawmakers, the White House said on Monday.
Observers say President Barack Obama should have pushed Republicans harder in debt deal negotiations. But the big mistake of Obama and Democrats wasn't raising the debt ceiling when they still controlled Congress in 2010.
Averting a U.S. debt default solves only the immediate fiscal problem for the West and its big creditors in Asia.
The next battle already looms on the legislative horizon: it's the battle over the 2001/2003 Bush tax cuts.
The military budget has not been spared in Congress' proposed debt deal bill.
With the debt deal negotiations done, the focus now shifts to the Republican-led House, where Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will try to attract moderate Democrats to offset the likely high number of Tea Party House members who will vote against the bill. A Senate vote on the bill also could occur later Monday.
