Top Republicans confident of debt deal with Obama

[nadinbrzezinski]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, was asked following talks at the White House whether an agreement was closer. "The answer is no," he told reporters.

Appearing earlier along with McConnell, Boehner said: "Senator McConnell and I are both confident that we're going to be able to come to some agreement with the White House and end this impasse."

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling by Tuesday's deadline, the government would be barred from further borrowing after then, according to the U.S. Treasury, and could quickly run out of money to pay all its bills.

The optimism expressed by the Republican leaders contrasted with the sour mood that had prevailed on Capitol Hill earlier, as lawmakers struggled to find a compromise measure to avert a default.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/30/us-usa-debt-idUSTRE7646S620110730

Notice the framing. I copied and pasted from the middle... we are really in a real pickle.

[aquart]

1. Anything that makes McConnell happy is bad news.

[msongs]

2. since obama likes to cut deals behind reid's back, no wonder he is unhappy nt

[BlueIdaho]

3. I hear Obama tried to change his party affiliation as part of the deal

But McConnell and Boehner thinks he's too valuable to their party as a paper tiger Democrat.

[Zorra]

4. Top Republicans confident of debt deal with Obama.

What a surprise.

[murielm99]

5. While not a deceptive headline, it could have read,

"Top Democrat doubts that a debt deal is near."

That would have been just as accurate.

The headline gives only half the story, so it is half-assed.

Why bother to write the article? What has changed?