The deal announced yesterday is official. Allahpundit has the blow-by-blow run down of the day's events and reactions. It still needs to pass both chambers but that seems to be a formality as President Obama is already claiming victory.
The ever exciting Jimmie Bise gives an excellent explanation of how the deal ended up. The immediate cuts aren't flashy and the debt ceiling is still going up but I'd rather see that, for the moment, while real cuts happen that for everyone to panic and pass things without thinking. (Though, that seems to be standard operating procedure in Congress.)
Jimmie points out one thing that's particularly interesting. The debt ceiling goes up in two parts. The second part requires $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. Assuming he's right, that would actually require a balanced budget before the second debt ceiling hike. I like that.
In the end, looking at the bill, it's hard to say that the Republicans and the Tea Party didn't win on this one. No, it's not perfect but there were no tax hikes and we're looking at serious spending reform over the next six months. The downside, which is going to happen regardless, is that Democrats will spend the next year talking about how Republicans want to kill Granny and hate poor people because they want to kill programs and spending.
Now, it's up to us to ensure that the Republicans actually stick to their guns on spending reforms.
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