 WASHINGTON—Congress passed must-do legislation Thursday to
permit the government to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars
more to meet its obligations, averting a first-ever government
default that had loomed as early as mid-February.  The 64-34
vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate sent the measure to
President Barack Obama, who has said he will sign it. The
Republican-led House passed the legislation last week.
Without the bill, the Treasury Department says, the government
would default on its obligations by as early as mid-February.
"Failure to pass this bill will set off an unpredictable
financial panic that would plunge not only the United States,
but much of the world, back into recession," said Sen. Max
Baucus, D-Mont. "Every single American would feel the economic
impact."   Those cuts—postponed by the recent "fiscal cliff"
deal—are the punishment for the failure of a 2011 deficit
supercommittee to reach an agreement. The panel was itself
established by the hard-fought 2011 increase in the de