DEBT TALKS UPDATE – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying at this hour that the parties are very close to an agreement to avert a debt crisis:

Washington (CNN) -- Democrats and Republicans are "very close" to reaching a $3 trillion deal on the debt limit, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.

"We had a very good day yesterday," the Kentucky Republican said, adding that the two sides "made dramatic progress."

With the deadline to reach a debt ceiling agreement just two days away, congressional leaders and the White House are mulling parts of a tentative deal that would extend the debt limit through next year.

A Republican source close to the negotiations told CNN the goal is $3 trillion in savings, and that the deal would include a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.

Just hours before, two other sources familiar with the negotiations had told CNN late Saturday night that the framework for the emerging deal called for up to $2.8 trillion in total deficit reduction over the next decade.

The plan, parts of which are still being negotiated by the White House and bipartisan congressional leaders, would allow the debt ceiling to be raised by enough to last at least through the end of 2012...

...McConnell added that he is "very very close to being able ... to recommend to my members that this is something that they ought to support."

The deal will not include tax increases, he said.

COMMENT:  Obviously, the Devil, as he always is, is in the details.  I want to know how this presumed deal will impact actual debt reduction over ten years.  I want to know how it will impact defense.  There are some reports, disturbing ones, that defense is to be gutted, but I can't believe Republicans would go along with that.  And, because I'm sane, I want to know how the plan will affect insurance (not entitlement) programs like Social Security and Medicare, which citizens have paid into all their working lives.  Government isn't doing Americans a favor by maintaining and reforming those programs.  Part of every paycheck goes for them.

July 31, 2011