Kentucky senator Rand Paul told Boston Herald Radio this afternoon he was never in favor of shutting down the government as a way to fight Obamacare.

“I never thought that shutting down the government was a good idea,” the potential 2016 presidential candidate said on the Michael Graham Show today. “And I’ve always thought really if you want to talk about Obamacare, talk about how bad it is, and how awful it’s going to be. and how it’s going to cause unemployment and loss of hours at work and cause the expense of insurance to go up. That’s all good. But attaching it to shutting down the government, I didn’t think was a good idea.”

Senate leaders announced a last-minute agreement today to avert a looming Treasury default tomorrow and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. Congress raced to pass the measure by day’s end.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared on the news that the threat of default was fading, flirting with a 200-point gain in morning trading.

“This is a time for reconciliation,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the agreement he had forged with the GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

It was a jubilant moment in the chamber, which yesterday was forced to sit back and watch as the effort by House GOP leaders for a bill collapsed in disarray.

McConnell said that with the Senate accord, Republicans had sealed a deal to have spending in one area of the budget decline for two years in a row, adding, “We’re not going back.”

One prominent Tea Party lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he would oppose the plan, but said he would not seek to delay its passage.

That was a key concession that signaled a strong possibility that both houses could act by day’s end. That, in turn, would allow President Obama to sign the bill into law ahead of tomorrow’s deadline that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had set for action to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit.

Herald wire services contributed