The debt ceiling is to rise initially by $900 billion under the Revised Budget Control Act of 2011. And then, the debt limit is to rise again by either $1.2 trillion or $1.5 trillion depending upon how successful the 12-member Joint Committee of Congress is in finding sufficient cuts in government spending to avoid a “trigger” that would do the cutting automatically. The committee will be made up of three Republicans and three Democrats from each chamber.

Those “deficit reductions” will be found and presented to Congress by the day before Thanksgiving, and then voted on, “up or down” with no amendments allowed, by both the House and the Senate, by December 23. If no agreement is reached by the committee, or if their bill fails in Congress, then budget cuts will be implemented automatically. Chances that the committee would choose “deficit reductions” in the form of tax increases are slim, according to House Speaker John Boehner:

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Photo: House Speaker John Boehner