Senate Likely to Vote on McConnell Debt Deal

Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid are busily hammering out a debt ceiling Plan B, and are likely to put it to a vote in the coming week, senior Democratic aides tell Reuters. It would be based on McConnell's widely panned plan to allow Democrats to raise the ceiling, but place the blame on them for doing so. Negotiations have centered on how to make Democrats accept the plan. The Senate will also take a symbolic, sure-to-fail vote on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

Pushback is likely from both sides against any deal. Tom Coburn said today that he is “unlikely to support” any version of McConnell’s plan. “It’s a great political plan,” he said on Face the Nation, according to Roll Call, but it avoids “making the hard choices.” White House budget chief Jack Lew meanwhile was optimistic, telling MSNBC that “the leaders in Congress seem to have all agreed that we can’t push to a default,” and that there is “still time to get something big done.” (More Mitch McConnell stories.)