Congress to vote on last-minute US debt deal

Congress is due to vote today on an eleventh-hour debt deal between Republicans and Democrats to save the US economy from default.

The plan would raise the government’s borrowing limit by at least two trillion dollars. Spending would be cut by a similar amount with a bipartisan committee helping to decide where the axe should fall.

“Is this the deal I would have preferred? No,” President Obama said. “I believe we could have made the tough choices required on entitlement reform and tax reform right now, rather then through a special Congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious downpayment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year.”

The plan offers an escape route, with a Tuesday deadline looming for an unprecedented debt default. But it may face a tricky passage in the House of Representatives where Republican right-wing Tea Party supporters and liberal lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with the deal.

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