Congress, Debt Limit | featured news

The likely deadline for Congress to prevent the government's first default will be later than earlier thought, a Washington think tank has found. The Bipartisan Policy Center said Friday that the government probably won't reach the brink of default until early September or early October. It had previously said default would come in July or August.

Americans are plenty angry at Congress in the aftermath of the debt crisis and Republicans could pay the greatest price, a new Associated Press-GfK poll suggests....

The debate over raising the debt ceiling, which brought the nation to the brink of default, has sent disapproval of Congress to its highest level on record.

Participants in the debt ceiling debate placed the spotlight on programs with a barely measurable impact on the deficit and put off to the indefinite future the things that really matter. Now that Congress is finished displaying its one unquestionable skill — conniving at ideological extortion, with the household budgets of millions of Americans hanging in the balance — the time has come to calculate the damage done to U.S. fiscal policy by the debt ceiling deal reached this week.

The president is the most visible symbol of what voters see as a badly dysfunctional government. Some Democrats say he could have negotiated better. Though he succeeded in staving off a historic default, President Obama emerges from the debt talks in a weakened political position with limited influence over a divided Congress.

The Senate gave final approval Tuesday to legislation to raise the nation's debt limit by $2.4 trillion while cutting federal deficits, sending President Obama a hard-fought bipartisan package he was expected to swiftly sign into law.

From the right and center: mild disgust. From the left: outright anger. Americans showed a range of emotions and responses to the debt-limit deal President Barack Obama and top...

Senate Majority Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Sunday night that they had come to an agreement on a deal that would raise the debt limit and reduce the deficit.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the key Republican negotiator, expressed optimism that a $3-trillion deal could be reached to avert a federal default. A Senate procedural vote is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Financial institutions across the country have begun preparing for a worst-case scenario if Congress fails to raise the nation’s borrowing limit, assembling plans to offer customers emergency loans or waive fees if their federal pay or benefits checks do not arrive on time. Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest in the country, said this week it would advance pay to direct-deposit members who are active-duty military or civilian employees of the Defense Department. It also said it would expedite approvals for lines of credit, overdraft programs and higher credit card limits.