ENTERPRISE Republicans and Democrats will ultimately reach an agreement to raise the federal governments debt limit, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Saturday during a public breakfast gathering in his home congressional district.

Although the Congressman was predicting a deal, he indicated he was less certain it would be struck in time to actually beat a looming Aug. 2 deadline.

Its like any other negotiation, Walden said. Whens the deal get made? At the deadline.

The federal governments debt cap crisis dominated Waldens discussion of issues with approximately 25 constituents Saturday morning at Lears Main Street Pub & Grill, where constituents attending a breakfast arranged by local Republicans nonetheless raised concerns about other matters.

On the debt issue, Walden came equipped with charts reinforcing Republican lawmakers main talking points in the raging national debate. The charts illustrated the current budget trend of ever-ballooning deficit spending, contrasted with the GOPs more austere proposal based on cuts variously to 2006 and 2009 spending levels, a blueprint the party calls Path to Prosperity.

Theres nobody big enough to bail out America, Walden said. We have to do it ourselves by restructuring spending now.

The Congressman assured attendees that people who are currently 55 or older would see no decrease in their Social Security benefits under the Republican plan. Details of Social Security reform potentially reducing the under-55 crowds future benefit amounts are still being worked out, however.

For the nearest term, Walden conceded that the current debt ceiling dilemma threatens to hold up Social Security payments scheduled for Aug. 3, the day after the deadline for raising the ceiling. Its not a scare tactic. Its a reality, he said, shortly after explaining that he and other Republican lawmakers had recently met with a former Treasury Department official from the last Bush administration to clarify federal debt defaults immediate implications.

Walden said lawmakers learned the government would need $30 billion to meet the Aug. 3 Social Security payday, and, a few days later, $90 billion more for a service payment on the governments existing debt. He termed the situation a basic cash flow problem.

It gets real serious real quick, and nobody knows what the impacts are, Walden said.

Lawmakers also learned they lacked statutory authority to choose which bills government would pay. In the event of default, Walden said, bills would have to be paid exactly in the order they arrived. You dont even have the flexibility you have in a business, he said.

For would-be budget-cutters, rising interest rates pose another major concern in a default scenario. Walden said an immediate interest rate hike of 100 basis points (1 percent) would increase the nations 10-year debt load by approximately a trillion dollars.

Through all of the ominous projections, though, the GOP apparently intends to hold fast to its demand for long-term spending reform, rather than sign on to a short-term debt cap agreement. Failure to get underlying reforms only postpones the problem, Walden said.