It’s about time.

“We’re not done yet.” ~ President Obama

The lowest level of spending since I Like Ike. Tea Partiers hate the deal. Dems fear it. So…for both sides…it can’t be all bad. That’s compromise!

Tea Party Freshman Republicans can still upset deal.

“Much damage to US financial stability reputation has already been done internationally.”

“Both sides gave more than they wanted to give.”

“President Barack Obama says a deal has been reached to raise the government’s debt ceiling and avoid a default. He said the deal includes more than $2 trillion in gradual spending cuts and no initial cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”

In the end, it came down to Democrats holding a firm line: that cuts must come equally from the military side, not just domestic (Social Security, Medicare). Details here. Excerpt via NY Times:

Markets reacted favorably to the announcement. Asian markets jumped on news of the deal. The Nikkei was up 1.7 percent in early trading; the dollar rose about 1.4 percent against the Japanese yen.

The agreement came after a day of wrangling over Pentagon cuts, and it still must win majority support in the Senate and the House, with the House providing a particular challenge...

…The tense, last-minute negotiations were taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty, with a looming threat of a costly downgrade of the nation’s credit rating and with investors worried about the global economic impact of a possible default.

President Obama, on the compromise:

“[it will] allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America…It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months, or eight months, or 12 months,” he said. “And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.”

From two days ago: