No Filibuster Expected On Debt Deal

The deal reached Wednesday to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government is now expected to proceed smoothly through both houses of Congress after Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he would not do anything to delay it.

Cruz, the first-term Texas Republican who has been spearheading conservative strategy in the government shutdown fight and gained national attention with his 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in late September, emerged from a meeting of the Senate Republican conference Wednesday saying that he would not delay a vote. Cruz told assembled reporters that while he opposed the bill, "There is nothing to be benefited by delaying this vote a couple of days versus having it today." In the senator's opinion, "the timing of the vote will make no difference in the outcome so I don't intend to delay the timing of the vote."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-UT), who first elected to the Senate in 1976, was also ready to end the standoff which started in an attempt to defund Obamacare. "It's time to act like adults," Hatch said. "Sooner or later the adults have to come forward and do what's best under the circumstances and that's what we're doing." Hatch bemoaned the new pattern of government by crisis in Washington, saying, "It's a crazy way to govern and not the best way to govern and I think it hurts this country."

The deal, which would fund the government through January 15, raise the debt ceiling until Feburary 7, and convene a budget conference between the House and the Senate with a mid-December deadline, is currently expected to be voted on by the Senate late Wednesday afternoon and then go on to a vote in the House of Representatives afterwards.