News
Washington DC
The Senate struck a deal on Tuesday that it hopes will avoid “a calamitous default” on the national debt, while preventing cuts to the US Medicare health-insurance programme that had been set to kick in at the end of the year. Rather than raise the debt ceiling – reinstated in August at $22trn – directly, the bill sets up another vote on the issue, one that would only require a simple majority in the Senate as opposed to the more usual 60 votes needed for legislation to pass, say Andrew Duehren and Eliza Collins in The Wall Street Journal. The Democratic Party should be able to win a majority in that vote. However, at least ten Republican votes will be needed to set up the additional vote in the first place – a goal that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) thought was attainable.
