Looks like a default has been averted for the time being. National Review’s Robert Costa describes the deal hammered out by top senators this way:
According to multiple sources in both chambers, Republican leaders are prepared to move forward today with the Senate-brokered deal to end the fiscal impasse. The agreement would fund the government until January 15, extend the debt ceiling until February 7, and initiate a budget conference for fiscal negotiations later this year. The agreement would also keep sequestration intact.
This is anything but a conservative's dream deal. However, if early reports are accurate, then the sequester at least has been preserved. This is good news. It had looked earlier this week that the sequester might be in danger. That would have been a shame. A Congressional Budget Office report found that the sequester’s reduction of the deficit over the next five years will be second only to the deal cut by then-President George H.W. Bush and Senator George Mitchell and that “the sequester caps are providing better fiscal discipline than any budget deal has since 1980.”
The deal is expected to pass both Houses of Congress.
Jonah Goldberg and Hugh Hewitt, who supported Senator Ted Cruz’s attempt to use the threat of a shutdown to defund ObamaCare, had a civil back and forth over the matter. Jonah conceded that perhaps it was a good thing to raise public awareness of Republican opposition to ObamaCare, especially if it is the disaster it looks to be.
But here’s some really important advice from Jonah on going forward:
[I]if at all possible, I think conservatives and Republicans would be well-served by putting these disagreements behind us, like family fights at a Thanksgiving table that are best forgotten.