It sounds like America’s political and potentially fiscal nightmare is (for a few months, at least) over: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have made a deal to open the government and avoid default — and reports say House Speaker John Boehner will allow it to go to a vote in the House:

There’s a deal to reopen the government and avoid a potential default on the debt, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor Wednesday.

The plan developed by the two leaders would open the government until Jan. 15 and extend the debt ceiling through Feb. 7.

Reid called the deal “historic,” and cautioned others keep the rhetoric to a minimum. “This is not a time for pointing fingers or blame. This is a time for reconciliation,” Reid said, before yielding to McConnell.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have reached an agreement on a compromise that would fund the government until Jan. 15 and extend the debt limit until Feb. 7.

“This compromise we reached will provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs,” Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor today.

“This has been a long challenging few weeks for Congress and for the country,” McConnell, R-Ky., added. “It’s my hope that today we can put some of the most urgent issues behind us.”

The proposal would also require income verification for people receiving health insurance premium subsidies from the federal government and it would ensure that the Treasury Department has the authority to use “extraordinary measures” to extend temporarily the debt limit, if necessary.

And in a bid to potentially prevent a replay of this crisis, the House and Senate would appoint a new committee to negotiate a budget for the remainder of the year, with their agreement due by Dec. 13.

With less than a day remaining before the debt limit is reached, Congress needs to work feverishly to pass the legislation that would also end the partial government shutdown.

And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has become de factor leader of the Tea Party Republicans and the talk radio political culture part of the GOP, has said he won’t filibuster this time:

A major obstacle that could have complicated plans to move the Senate proposal today appears to have been alleviated now that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has said he would not block a vote.

“There’s nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days,” Cruz told reporters today as Senate leaders announced the deal on the floor. “I never had any intention of delaying the timing of this vote.”

Of the deal, Cruz lamented that it does not provide “relief” to Americans from the Obama health care law.

“The United States Senate and the Washington establishment are doing nothing to provide relief to the American people,” he added.

The second potential obstacle could come in the House, where Speaker John Boehner is faced with a decision about whether he will take up the Senate’s compromise first, a procedural move that could dramatically speed up the process of approval by Congress.

If he does take it up, he would need to rely on Democratic votes.

CNN adds this:

President Barack Obama praised Senate leaders for reaching a compromise agreement to raise the debt ceiling and temporarily fund the government, and urged Congress to act quickly to approve the legislation, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The Daily Beast:

Cruz, the first-term Texas Republican who has been spearheading conservative strategy in the government shutdown fight and gained national attention with his 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in late September, emerged from a meeting of the Senate Republican conference Wednesday saying that he would not delay a vote. Cruz told assembled reporters that while he opposed the bill, “There is nothing to be benefited by delaying this vote a couple of days versus having it today.” In the senator’s opinion, “the timing of the vote will make no difference in the outcome so I don’t intend to delay the timing of the vote.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-UT), who first elected to the Senate in 1976, was also ready to end the standoff which started in an attempt to defund Obamacare. “It’s time to act like adults,” Hatch said. “Sooner or later the adults have to come forward and do what’s best under the circumstances and that’s what we’re doing.” Hatch bemoaned the new pattern of government by crisis in Washington, saying, “It’s a crazy way to govern and not the best way to govern and I think it hurts this country.”

The deal, which would fund the government through January 15, raise the debt ceiling until Feburary 7, and convene a budget conference between the House and the Senate with a mid-December deadline, is currently expected to be voted on by the Senate late Wednesday afternoon and then go on to a vote in the House of Representatives afterwards.

USA Today:

Prompt Senate passage appeared all but certain after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he would not filibuster the deal. “There’s nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days, the outcome will be same,” said Cruz, who gained national attention for his 21-hour filibuster-style speech during this budget debate on his opposition to President Obama’s healthcare law.

The narrow package includes a stopgap measure that funds the government through Jan. 15, a suspension of the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, and a framework for formal budget negotiations to begin. Negotiators would be tasked with reporting out by Dec. 13 recommendations for longer-term spending levels and deficit reduction. It does not include any significant provisions affecting the Affordable Care Act.

Senate leaders reasserted control of negotiations after House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, failed Tuesday to corral GOP lawmakers behind a competing budget proposal. House GOP leaders will likely have to rely on the vast majority of House Democrats to pass the Senate package.

“You’re going to see a lot of Democrats vote for it, and you might get a few Republicans to vote for it, but I don’t think you’ll see a wide swath of our conservative caucus vote for what comes over from the Senate,” Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wisc., said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

The shutdown and debt ceiling fight has been politically bruising for the GOP. The battle began when House Republicans tried repeatedly to attach measures to a stopgap funding bill that would delay or defund Obama’s healthcare law. Those efforts were rejected by the White House and Senate Democrats.

The New York Times:

Chastened Senate Republicans said they hoped the outcome would be a learning experience for lawmakers in the House and the Senate who shut down the government in hopes of gutting Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Instead of using the twin deadlines of an end to government funding and borrowing authority to address the drivers of the federal deficit, conservatives focused on a law they could never undo as long as Mr. Obama is president, several senators said.

“We took some bread crumbs and left an entire meal on the table,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “This has been a really bad two weeks for the Republican Party.”

Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, took a swipe at Senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, as well as House members who linked further funding of the government to gutting the health care law, which is financed by its own designated revenues and spending cuts.

“Let’s just say sometimes learning what can’t be accomplished is an important long-term thing,” Mr. Burr said, “and hopefully for some of the members they’ve learned it’s impossible to defund mandatory programs by shutting down the federal government.”

But while Mr. Cruz conceded defeat, he did not express contrition.

“Unfortunately, the Washington establishment is failing to listen to the American people,” he said as he emerged from a meeting of Senate Republicans called to ratify the agreement.

Mr. Cruz promised not to use parliamentary tactics to block a final vote, raising hopes that the government will be opened and the debt ceiling will be lifted before Thursday, when the Treasury exhausts its borrowing authority.

“From our side, I don’t see any evidence of delay,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a Cruz ally.

The Washington Post:

But the bill’s timeline sets up another potentially bitter showdown over spending cuts and entitlement programs that will unfold in the halls of Congress over the next four months…

Politico:

It remains unclear when a final vote would occur in the Senate, but given that Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) aren’t preparing to stymie quick passage, the vote in the Senate could be today. McConnell said he was “confident” Congress would be able to move on the bill later today and in floor speeches senators appeared prepared to cast their votes on Wednesday.

House Republicans will hold a closed-door meeting at 3 p.m. If the House passes the bill first and sends it to the upper chamber, it would eliminate some burdensome procedural hurdles in the Senate and require just one procedural roll call with a 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill toward final passage in the Senate.

That scenario would represent an extraordinarily risky play for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), because it’s far from clear any Senate proposal would garner the majority of the House Republican Conference. House Republicans have clung to the so-called Hastert Rule, a mantra that the House speaker should not try to pass a bill that doesn’t have the support of the “majority of the majority.” In this case, that would mean 117 Republicans must support the bill to avoid getting crosswise with the rule. Top GOP sources say it’s unlikely they will reach that level of support.

House Democratic leadership expects an overwhelming majority of its caucus will back the Senate deal.

The fact that House Republicans are now planning to take this route marks a stunning reversal for the speaker who had backed his conservative wing’s drive to gut Obamacare as part of the government shutdown fight, now in its third week.
The bill will barely scathe Obamacare and putting it on the floor will mark a huge concession by the House after sparking a prolonged government shutdown over insistence that the health care law be defunded or delayed as a condition to keep the government open. Dozens of conservatives in the House will be disappointed by the proposal and Boehner will need Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to deliver a bevy of votes to pass the bill.

The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt ceiling would be raised.
The deal would also deliver back pay to furloughed federal workers, require income verification for people seeking health-insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and also allow the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to pay the nation’s bills if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by Feb. 7.

Ted Cruz reacts:

The Hill:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has agreed to allow a vote in the House on the emerging Senate debt-ceiling deal, according to a Senate source.??
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were racing Wednesday to put the finishing touches on the deal ahead of Thursday’s deadline for raising the $16.7 trillion debt limit.

….”The Speaker will bring that bill to the House floor,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told Bloomberg television Wednesday morning.

It’s unclear whether the House or Senate will vote first on the agreement.
Starting in the House could speed passage in the Senate, but a senior House GOP leadership aide said the order of votes remains up in the air.

“No decision has been made about how or when a potential Senate agreement could be voted on in the House,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner.

………The stock market surged as signs emerged that Washington would find a way to avoid the nation’s first-ever debt default. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 190 points in late-morning trading.

It remains to be seen whether Boehner will have significant Republican support for the Senate deal, or be forced to rely on House Democrats to pass it.

The Week is offering this excellent live update page with Tweets

SOME BLOG REACTION:
—Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey:

The endgame will arrive a little sooner than expected, thanks to a deal cut with John Boehner to take the first plunge on a bipartisan plan to end the budget standoff before the theoretical debt-ceiling limit gets breached. Instead of the Senate taking up the proposal from Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell first, Boehner will allow a vote — without amendments — and have it pass with Democrats making up the difference from expected opposition from conservatives….

….This was inevitable after last night’s collapse of Republican unity in the House. According to most sources, Boehner can count on the majority of his caucus to support the move, but will get pilloried by the conservative wing of the caucus. That may mean that Boehner won’t be Speaker if Republicans retain the House after the 2014 elections, but at this point Boehner may not want the job at all.

—The Daily Kos’ Kos:

DC Republicans plan to relitigate this entire mess all over again early next year—both the budget and the debt limit. They are smarting from today’s capitulation and are desperate for a rematch. So the best way to head that off? Deliver some serious electoral pain. The bigger the gains this November, the more gun-shy they’ll be when we hit the new deadlines next year.

So let’s take advantage of this moment to continue clawing back the GOP’s 2010 gains. Republicans are in open Civil War, so they’ll be busy primarying the s— out of each other. And you know what they say about a house divided.

The Washington Monthly’s Ed Kilgore (always a must-read):

You’d think that having yielded entirely to the Senate in resolving the fiscal crisis, the Republicans controlling the House would have a day or so to lick their wounds, explain to their staffs why they nearly voted to get rid of their health insurance, and then explain to constituents why they were behaving like characters in a Marx Brothers movie.

But no: for reasons of their own (basically the need to limit Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to one opportunity to gum up the works with objections to unanimous consent agreements), the Senate is reportedly insisting that the House vote first on the emerging plan. Perhaps another motive is to ensure that Senate Republicans don’t go out on a limb which House Republicans proceed to saw off, with primary challenges waiting in the wings for “Obamacare Funders.”

But in any event, this maneuver almost certainly means John Boehner has privately agreed to waive the so-called Hastert Rule and put the Senate deal on the floor, allowing it to be passed by mainly Democratic votes and allowing his most restive and unhappy troops to bow one more time to the almighty power of Heritage Action, the conservative blogosphere, and the Tea Folk by voting against a return to normal life.

—Andrew Sullivan:

Cruz will not stand in the way. The one critical factor in resolving this? The president’s poker-faced refusal to compromise the way he did in 2011. He has not been center-stage this past week, but that doesn’t mean his stance hasn’t affected this fiasco. It saved us.

A CROSS SECTION OF TWEETS:

Elections, consequences, etc. MT @NowWithAlex: Uh oh: Limbaugh On The GOP: I Can't Remember "Any Major Political Party Being So Irrelevant

— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) October 16, 2013

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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