Senate passes bill to prevent US default

Aug 03, 2011 - STEVEN R. HURST |

Washington

The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that heads off an unprecedented US financial default and begins the process of curbing the country’s spiralling debt. With less than 12 hours to go before the deadline, President Barack Obama promised to sign the measure immediately.

After weeks of some of the nastiest political battles in recent US history, both the Senate and House of Representatives, which voted on Monday night, easily adopted the plan that raises the current $14.3 trillion cap on US borrowing, which expires at midnight. In tandem with increasing the borrowing limit, legislators approved more than $2 trillion of budget cuts over the upcoming decade. —AP

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