Barack owe drama

'Messy talks' ... President Barack Obama

 

AMERICA was last night warned it could still suffer a devastating credit rating downgrade - despite a deal to solve its debt crisis.

Rival US politicians began voting to approve a last-minute agreement to raise the country's "debt ceiling" or overdraft limit by $2.4trillion to $16.7trillion.
Last night the House of Representatives voted 269 to 161 for the move and sent it to the Senate for final congressional approval today.

Video: $17trillion U.S. debt deal

UNITED STATES politicians finally struck a deal to solve their cash crisis

• Sky News

It means the world's largest economy will be able to keep on borrowing cash - and avoid defaulting on its debts tonight.
But experts said the deal went nowhere near enough to tackling debt over the coming years - and the US could lose its AAA credit rating.
The debt ceiling will go up by $2.4 trillion - to $16.7 trillion - and the deal would see budget savings of a similar amount over ten years.
The cuts are likely to be tougher than those by the Coalition here.
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's had wanted a $4 trillion belt-tightening package. HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver said he couldn't see how credit agencies could avoid cutting the US rating.
President Barack Obama apologised that the deal talks had been "messy and taken too long".
Democrats felt he had agreed to cut too much. And the right-wing Tea Party said he hadn't cut enough.

Cartoon ... Sun's view

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was applauded as she voted for the first time since she was shot in the head in a gun rampage in January.
PM David Cameron's spokesman said: "Agreement will help stability."
Stock markets in Europe soared yesterday morning on signs of a deal. But the FTSE 100 ended 40.76 points down at 5774.43 after figures showing the US manufacturing sector had its worst month for two years in July.