The Deal Is Done & Both Sides Claim a Measure of Victory

The national media is something short of credible…one news organization claims neutrality while pointing out what they claim is agenda driven coverage in a competing organization….it’s tough to know who to believe…and that being the case, who do you believe on the media coverage of the debt deal??    Here is the Washington Times fairly neutral  take on the story….

Hemmed in by the looming threat of an historic government default, the Senate on Tuesday passed a $2 trillion-plus debt extension and sent it to the White House, where President Obama was poised to sign it   — just in time to keep federal borrowing and spending on track.

The bipartisan 74-26 vote followed Monday’s equally strong vote of support in the House, and ratifies the agreement Mr. Obama and the four top party leaders in Congress reached this weekend to cut about $1 trillion in future spending and set up a process to cut more than $1 trillion more, coupled with an up to $2.4 trillion increase in the federal debt-ceiling limit.

Republican supporters said the deal makes history by being the first time that spending cuts have been attached to a debt-limit increase, and said that is now the new standard every future administration will have to meet.

“Never again will any president from either party be allowed to raise the debt ceiling without being held accountable for it by the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.

Democrats, meanwhile, took heart in playing defense: They said they kept the cuts lower than they otherwise would have been, and staggered them so the deeper bites come in the later years of this decade.