We Will Not Be Disarmed: SENATE EASILY PASSES BUDGET DEAL – HERE ARE THE 18 REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST IT

Racing to make a deadline, the Senate passed legislation Wednesday night to avoid a threatened national default and end the 16-day partial government shutdown along the strict terms set by President Barack Obama.

The 81-18 vote sent the measure to a waiting House. Expected passage there late in the evening would clear it for Obama’s signature – the final act in an epic political drama that put the economy’s health at risk.

The legislation would permit the Treasury to borrow normally through Feb. 7 or perhaps a month longer, and fund the government through Jan. 15. More than two million federal workers would be paid – those who had remained on the job and those who had been furloughed.

The stock market surged higher at the prospect of an end to the crisis that also had threatened to shake confidence in the U.S. economy overseas.

The White House embraced the bill, worked out by the Senate’s two party leaders, saying in a statement it would “protect the full faith and credit of the United States and end the government shutdown.”

Republicans had other concerns. “We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win,” conceded House Speaker John Boehner as lawmakers lined up to vote on a bill that includes nothing for… Click Here to read full story