Senate Won’t Get July 4 Vacation

And no dessert until you finish your dinner, either! Senators won’t get time off for the July 4 holiday because they haven’t made enough progress on raising the debt ceiling. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday that legislators will be back in Session on July 5 instead of getting the week off. The nation is expected to hit its debt ceiling on August 2, at which point there’s a risk of default and lowering of the national credit rating—something economists say would be catastrophic for the economy. Furious negotiations on deficit-reduction deals have so far come to naught. During his press conference Wednesday, President Obama scolded Congress for its failure to do its job and deal with the problem.