Debt Deal Heads To Vote With Muted Optimism From Local Political Leaders, Interested Followers

Congressional leaders came to an agreement on raising the nation's debt limit Sunday night, perhaps avoiding a default that experts have said would devastate the nation financially.

But the agreement still must be debated and voted on by House and Senate, where politicians on both sides of the aisle have grumbled about the deal.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, for one, said the deal does not make either party particularly happy, but is necessary to avoid default.

That fact put party leaders to work Monday to convince skeptics to vote for the measure in the name of compromise. The deal will guarantee cuts totaling $2.1 trillion in spending over the next 10 years.

As the House debates the deal on the floor Monday afternoon, it's certain that many politicans aren't entirely satisfied. Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin tweeted last week he understood citizens' desire for a bipartisan agreement.

But if Tweeters and commenters in the social media world are to be believed, ordinary folks aren't necessarily thrilled with this compromise, either.

"No one wins," Dustin Gawrylow tweeted at Patch. "The deal does not cut spending, only the growth rate of spending. A solution is still a long ways away."

Part of that solution is set to involve a so-called "super Congress" of six Democrats and six Republicans, who will have the task of proposing a broader deficit-reduction package by late November.

If that group fails to deliver a proposal adding up to $1.5 trillion in cuts, $1.2 trillion in cuts would be split equally between defense and domestic programs, The Huffington Post reported.

As for whether the measure can pass the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate, party leaders and interested onlookers alike seem to believe the deal will make it through Congress.

"Any House Republican or Senate Democrat who fails to toe the line and vote for the bill will not only lose the support of their party leaders and their caucuses, but also likely fight a tough re-election battle in a few months," Jack Hardcastle wrote on Owings Mills Patch's Facebook wall.

"Nobody wants to be 'one of 10 lawmakers who pushed this country over the brink of default and ruined our credit rating.'"