President Barack Obama has backed a deal aimed at ending the US government shutdown, after Democrat and Republican Senate leaders unveiled a plan to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced a deal that calls for reopening the federal government with a temporary budget until January 15 and extending US borrowing authority until February 7.

The agreement came just hours before the point where the US Treasury simply would have been unable to borrow money to meet its very big debt obligations.

The eleventh-hour compromise still needs to pass both chambers of Congress before it reaches Mr Obama's desk.

The White House has asked the Congress to "act swiftly" and vote on the bill to end the shutdown, which has crippled the nation since October 1.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-17/us-senators-near-agreement-on-passing-budget/5027490

THE “macho” image of the United States has been seriously undermined in recent years. Its settlers may have conquered the wilderness and forged the world’s number one power, but the US is no longer invincible; it has been hit by recession, attacked by foreign terrorists, and its political and economic supremacy has been overshadowed by China and new sets of foreign alliances.

Has the time come for a more “feminine” style of American politics? Are we already witnessing it?

It is certainly tempting to see the Republicans’ bullish attempt to scupper President Obama’s Health Care bill – at the risk of worldwide financial catastrophe - as a desire to regain their masculinity. Obama’s insistence that the government should provide basic health care for all its citizens flies in the face of the libertarian view of “each man for himself” that is so embedded in American culture. Obamacare is, in essence, a maternalistic policy.

Just as interesting, while the intransigent Republicans locked horns over the government debt limit, it was women senators, from both parties, who led the way towards working through the stalemate.

Fed up with the stubborn power fight of her male colleagues, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine came up with a three-point plan that she thought would produce a consensus in her party. Sen Collins was then joined by Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

On the Democrat side, two powerful women, Senators Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland and Patty Murray of Washington, pressed their Republican counterparts to adjust their demands so that a compromise could be agreed on Wednesday night. Democrat Joe Manchin III, a collaborator of Sen Collins, praised the “gender mix”, commenting, “Would it have worked as well if it had been 12 women or 12 men? I can’t say for sure, but it worked pretty well with what we had.”

The gender mix that helped to resolve this political impasse is significant because it represents different styles of leadership and how important it can be to create a balance between the traditional aggressive “masculine” style and what can be seen as a more conciliatory “feminine” style.