US bipartisan debt deal hopes rise

A new plan out of the United States Senate is raising hopes the country can avert the potential disaster of running out of money to pay its bills — credit default. President Barack Obama, with the Democrats and Republicans, is looking at the plan today.

Obama said: “We don’t have any more time to engage in symbolic gestures, we don’t have any more time to posture. It’s time to get down to the business of actually solving this problem and I think we now are seeing the potential for a bipartisan consensus around what that would take.”

White House talks on a deficit-reduction deal have been stalled over tax increases, which Republicans oppose. The deadline is August 2.

Obama called the plan by the so-called “Gang of Six” senators “very significant “. Investors welcomed it too. Tuesday was the best day for US stocks since March.

Cuts in key social security programmes will be central to any agreement on increasing the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit.

Copyright © 2013 euronews