Lawmakers close to deal to avoid default
(Reuters)
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Lawmakers were close to a last-ditch $3 trillion deal on Sunday to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and assure jittery financial markets that the United States will avoid a potentially catastrophic default.</p> <p> The tantalizing possibility of an agreement raised hopes that a weeks-long partisan brawl over cutting the U.S. deficit might be staggering to a cliffhanger close. There are just two days left to lift the debt ceiling, which caps how much money the United States can borrow to pay all of its bills.</p> <p> “We’re really, really close to an agreement,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader who has been in negotiations with Vice President Joe Biden on a plan to reduce the deficit and permit a vote to raise the debt ceiling.</p> <p> Signaling a bipartisan agreement could be imminent, an aide said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would support the emerging deal as long as his fellow Democrats back it as well. Reid said he hoped to hold a Sena