Congress and White House Reach Tentative Budget Deal
By David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times.
WASHINGTON — Congress and the White House spent September bracing for a disruptive government shutdown, and most of October fretting over a possible default on the federal debt.
In between, rebellious House Republicans ousted their speaker, John A. Boehner, and derailed his preferred successor, Kevin McCarthy, forcing the rest of their party to plead with a reluctant Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to accept the gavel and try to control a majority that Mr. Boehner could not.
Then, suddenly — almost implausibly — a budget deal was delivered just before midnight on Monday, one that promises relative tranquillity if not a full-on détente. The rancor that had defined Congress gave way to a complex 144-page bill. Its passage on Wednesday was virtually guaranteed before many lawmakers had a chance to read the table of contents.