US House passes debt bill, wards off default risk

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The House of Representatives  today approved a last-gasp deal to raise the U.S. borrowing  limit in a decisive step toward averting a catastrophic debt  default by the world’s largest economy.
A day before the deadline to lift the debt ceiling, the  passage by the Republican-controlled House of the $2.1 trillion  deficit-cutting plan hammered out over the weekend cleared the  way for the Senate to approve it.
The Democratic-controlled Senate was due to vote on the  bill at noon (1600 GMT) tomorrow and was widely expected to  pass it. This would send it to the desk of President Barack  Obama, who has said he is anxious to sign the bill.
The House vote of approval had been considered the biggest  obstacle to a solution of the crisis.
It signaled the end was in sight to a months-long partisan  battle that had deadlocked the political system of the United  States, alarming its international allies, shaking financial  markets and diminishing the U.S. global image.
The bill passed in the House by 269 votes to 161, well over  the required majority. Democrats were evenly split on the bill  — 95 for, 95 against — while 174 Republicans voted for the  measure, with 66 opposing it.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat  badly injured in a January shooting, made a surprise appearance  on the House floor to vote for the bill, drawing applause.  Giffords blew kisses and waved.
Up to the last minute, financial markets worldwide had been  rattled by uncertainty over whether the compromise plan could  pass the House in the face of objections from conservative Tea  Party Republicans and liberal Democrats.
After the vote, House Speaker John Boehner, the top  Republican in Congress, said the end result justified the often  torturous months of negotiations. “The process works. It may  not be pretty, but it works,” he told reporters.