The deal reached by Congress to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling “averts a financial catastrophe but leaves the weakened U.S. economy facing new threats,” the Washington Post reports.
But while the bipartisan deal ends a period of disruption that has slowed the economy — the shutdown removed more than $20 billion in direct government spending and related economic activity — it creates new perils, setting up other economy-shaking deadlines in just a few months.
It also does almost nothing for the country’s existing economic challenges, including automatic spending cuts that are worsening the problem of high unemployment and a long-term debt challenge posed by mounting costs in health-care and retirement programs.
