Debt Deal May Be Close At Hand

MIAMI (CBS4) - The U.S. Senate fell short of passing a plan to cap the debt ceiling Sunday, but legislators on Capitol Hill vowed to move forward toward reaching a deal before Tuesday at midnight.

Jack Howell says it's an encouraging sign. Howell is an investment manager who has authored several books and runs The American Institute for Financial Education.

"The debate used to be should we continue this deficit spending or not," Howell told CBS4 Tiffani Helberg. "Now we've had a remarkable transformation. The debate now is everyone agrees, Democrats and Republicans agree, that we have to stop the spending. That is a tremendous benefit to the American people."

Howell said the debate has made for a jittery stock market over the last few weeks. This, as lawmakers try to decide if we should stop spending more than we take in.

"The more we do so the more it devalues our currency, the more it gives us the opportunity of having substantially higher interest rates," said Howell. "That means higher car loans, higher student loan rates, higher credit card rates. We have to stop this deficit spending."

But Howell points out the interest rates are currently better than what they were last year. "So what that shows you, what that tells us is that the markets are encouraged by the fact that Congress is finally starting to deal with the problem of deficit spending."
In Washington, leaders said an end to the debt ceiling stalemate is near as they promised to continue to work toward a compromise.