If you're interested in the details of the debt ceiling deal, the White House posted a fact sheet here. Don't read the Boehner fact sheet because it's full of errors/lies.
It's difficult for me to write an "upside" post about the deal because I don't think there's an upside. Say it along with me now: spending cuts in a slow growth recovery are a terrible, ridiculous, utterly stupid thing to do. I understand the calculus that there had to be a deal or else we'd default. I get it. It's better than a global economic crisis. But that doesn't mean I have to accept a less harmful crisis that will surely ensue by this austerity.
We're still nursing our financial wounds from the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment is still a major problem. The housing crisis hasn't improved. Spending cuts will only tempt a backslide. If the recession hadn't screwed my finances, I'd bet on such a prospect.
So read the details yourself. Social Security isn't cut -- yet. Medicaid isn't cut -- yet. But there are still massive spending cuts and no tax increases on the super rich. And it might not even pass.
I really hope I'm wrong about all of this.
(Context for the headline here.)