Financial Crisis: U.S. Debt Ceiling in Pictures
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the debt ceiling crisis in the briefing room at the White House in Washington July 31, 2011. Obama said on Sunday that Democrat and Republican leaders have reached an agreement to reduce the U.S. deficit and avoid default, but it was not clear if the spending cuts were deep enough to stave off a credit rating downgrade. REUTERS

The Senate finally voted 74-26 to raise the debt ceiling to over 2 trillion dollars this afternoon and slash federal spending by a similar amount.

As soon as President Obama officially signed the bill in the White House to allow the nation to continue borrowing money while increasing citizen taxes, he told America "Everyone is going to have to chip in. It's only fair."

Obama is declaring war on the wealthy Americans' tax breaks, as cutting spending is not enough and he wants a "balanced" approach.

"It means reforming our tax code so that the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations pay their fair share," he said. "And it means getting rid of taxpayer subsidies to oil and gas companies, and tax loopholes that help billionaires pay a lower tax rate than teachers and nurses."

Obama added "I've said it before, I will say it again: We can't balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have born the biggest brunt of this recession."

The President isn't the only one insisting on tax hikes. Senate leader Harry Reid said "The only way we can arrive at a fair arrangement for the American people with this joint committee is to have equal sharing. It's going to be painful. Each party if they do the right thing, it's going to be painful for them because to be fair, we have to move forward."

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