周三，参议院民主党人在关于债务上限的闭门特别核心小组会议上表示，他们打算让共和党少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔提高短期债务上限。
多名参议员和助手告诉美国广播公司新闻，民主党人拒绝了麦康奈尔的另一项提议，该提议将要求共和党人利用他们用来通过数万亿美元社会支出法案的预算和解程序，加快民主党人通过长期债务上限的提高。
“麦康奈尔屈服了!麦康奈尔屈服了，“伊丽莎白·沃伦参议员，马萨诸塞州。，举起拳头告诉记者。
威斯康星州参议员塔米·鲍德温(Tammy Baldwin)告诉美国有线电视新闻网:“我们打算利用这次暂时的胜利，然后试图与共和党合作，在更长期的基础上做到这一点。
“不会有和解，”参议院预算委员会主席伯尼·桑德斯说。，着重告诉记者，并补充说，短期修复必须尽快通过。
谭美·达克沃斯参议员。，表示同意，称她很高兴麦康奈尔“折叠”，并表示民主党人“永远不会”利用和解来提高债务上限。
目前还不清楚对新提议的投票将在周三晚上还是周四进行，尽管后者似乎更有可能。
作为美国面临前所未有的违约在国会山的边缘政策游戏中，参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周三向民主党人提供了两种提高债务上限的选择。这两种选择都要求民主党将上限提高一个特定的数额，但该党并不想这样做，担心提高仅由民主党批准的国家借款限额会带来政治影响。
民主党拒绝了共和党人提出的帮助民主党人加快预算进程的提议，即通过和解将债务上限提高特定金额，但改为在两个月内将债务上限短期提高到特定金额，直至12月。
此前，共和党人拒绝允许民主党人以简单多数票通过提高债务上限，从而阻止美国陷入一场可能比2008年危机更糟糕的自我造成的金融危机。
“共和党仍然是唯一一个有计划防止违约的政党，”麦康奈尔说，尽管他几周以来一直坚持民主党应该独自完成这一进程。“我们已经明确表示，我们将协助加快独立债务限额立法的304和解程序。为了保护美国人民免受近期民主党制造的危机，我们还将允许民主党人使用正常程序，以固定的美元金额通过紧急债务限额延长，以覆盖12月份之前的当前支出水平。”
虽然一些民主党人认为短期延期是一种胜利，但夏威夷民主党参议员马齐·广野(Mazie Hirono)表示，麦康奈尔的两个提议都是“废话”，并补充说，这位共和党领袖“无情”，讽刺地说，“他可以开个玩笑。”
当美国广播公司新闻部的马里亚姆·汗问舒默是否应该接受麦康奈尔的一个选择时，鉴于这个国家正处于最后期限，广野回答说，“我们为什么要接受英国广播公司报价的任何部分?”
在麦康奈尔提出这一提议之前，参议院共和党人曾计划在周三阻挠众议院通过的一项措施，该措施将暂停债务限额至2022年12月。至少有10名共和党人需要加入所有参议院民主党人的行列，以打破共和党的阻挠，并允许简单的多数票通过该法案——这是乔·拜登总统呼吁的，他在早些时候与商界领袖的一次会议上告诉共和党人“让开。”
没有共和党人的支持，拜登和其他民主党人提出为结束债务上限投票的阻挠程序开辟一个例外，这将获得所有50名民主党参议员的支持，但这似乎也不是一条前进的道路。
温和派参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)和温和派参议员基尔斯顿·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema)一起拒绝修改阻挠议事规则，他早些时候就表明了自己的立场，将解决经济危机的责任完全放在参议院领导人的肩上。
“这不应该是一场危机。我已经非常非常清楚我的立场，我在阻挠议事上的立场。我不必重复那个。我想我已经说得很清楚了。没什么变化，”曼钦在国会山告诉记者。“但底线是我们有责任成为成年人。我们的领导层有责任领导。”
他补充说:“此时我唯一能对舒默领袖和麦康奈尔领袖说的是，请领导，一起努力。
舒默早些时候在会上表示，参议院必须推进“负责任的事情，投票允许美国继续支付账单。”
“过去几周，共和党人在债务上限问题上的阻挠是鲁莽和不负责任的，但尽管如此，共和党人今天将有机会得到他们一直要求的东西，”舒默在上午表示第一个也是最简单的选择是这样的:共和党人可以简单地让开，我们可以同意跳过阻挠议事的投票，这样我们就可以着手最终通过这项法案。"
但是共和党人让民主党人如此轻松地执政，尽管民主党人在前总统唐纳德·特朗普领导下的分裂的华盛顿多次暂停债务上限。
几个月来，共和党领导人一直坚称，民主党人必须自己采取行动提高联邦债务上限，因为他们完全控制了华盛顿，并计划在没有共和党支持的情况下通过一项数万亿美元的社会和经济一揽子计划。
但民主党人和拜登重申，偿还美国债务是一项具有历史意义的两党措施，国会将批准的资金在一定程度上是在时任参议院多数党领袖麦康奈尔的领导下支出的。
麦康奈尔曾多次表示，民主党人应该不得不提高债务上限，以支付拜登议程中尚未通过的部分可能数万亿美元的成本，尽管债务上限必须提高，以涵盖特朗普政府时期在共和党统一支持下已经发生的支出。
在民主党要求制定阻挠议案的过程中，麦康奈尔在一次午餐会议上告诉议员们两种选择:短期延期或加快和解进程——但这也将给共和党带来他们在政治上要求的东西:提高仅由民主党批准的国家借款限额，以便共和党在中期选举中抓住机会。
白宫经济学家和财政部长珍妮特·耶伦警告说，如果不采取行动，美国人将在未来几天感受到自己造成的经济危机的现实影响。后果包括社会保障支付和服务人员支票的延迟，退伍军人福利的暂停，以及信用卡、汽车贷款和抵押贷款利率的上升。
Democrats expected to take short-term debt ceiling increase, reject GOP reconciliation offer
Senate Democrats emerged from a closed door special caucus meeting on the debt ceiling on Wednesday and said they intend to take GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell up on his short-term debt ceiling increase.
Multiple senators and aides told ABC News Democrats are rejecting McConnell’s other offer that would have Republicans expediting Democrats passing a longer-term debt ceiling increase using the budget reconciliation process that they’re using to pass the multi-trillion dollar social spending bill.
“McConnell caved! McConnell caved,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters with a fist raised.
“We intend to take this temporary victory and then try to work with the Republicans to do this on a longer-term basis,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told CNN.
“There’s not going to be reconciliation,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told reporters emphatically, adding that the short term fix must pass as soon as possible.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., agreed, saying she was glad McConnell “folded“ and said Democrats would “never“ use reconciliation to increase the debt ceiling.
It’s unclear if a vote on the new proposal would occur Wednesday night or Thursday, though the latter appeared more likely.
As theU.S. barrels toward an unprecedented defaultin a game of brinkmanship on Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered Democrats two options to increase the debt ceiling on Wednesday. Both options require that Democrats increase the ceiling by a specific amount, which the party has not wanted to do, fearing political implications of an increase to the nation's borrowing limit approved solely by Democrats.
Democrats rejected an offer for that Republicans to help Democrats expedite the budget process known as reconciliation to hike the debt limit by a specified amount but instead took a short-term increase of the debt ceiling to a specified amount for two months -- until December.
It comes after Republicans have refused to allow Democrats to move forward on raising the debt ceiling with a simple majority vote, subsequently preventing the country from entering a self-inflicted financial crisis, potentially worse than the 2008 crisis.
"Republicans remain the only party with a plan to prevent default," McConnell said, though he has maintained for weeks that Democrats should go the process alone. "We have already made it clear we would assist in expediting the 304 reconciliation process for stand-alone debt limit legislation. To protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis, we will also allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December."
While some Democrats took short-term extension as a win, Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said McConnell's two offers were "BS," adding the GOP leader is "heartless" and, sarcastically, "He could give a rip."
Asked by ABC News' Mariam Khan if Schumer should accept one of McConnell's options, given the nation is on a deadline, Hirono replied, "Why should we accept any part of a BS offer?"
Ahead of McConnell's proposition, Senate Republicans had planned to filibuster a House-passed measure on Wednesday that would suspend the debt limit until December 2022. At least 10 Republicans would need to join all Senate Democrats to break the GOP filibuster and allow a simple majority vote to pass the bill -- which President Joe Biden has called for, telling Republicans at a meeting with business leader earlier to "get out of the way."
Without Republican support, Biden and other Democrats raised carving out an exception to ending the filibuster for the debt ceiling vote, which would take the support of all 50 Democratic senators -- but it doesn't seem to be a pathway forward either.
Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who along with fellow moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has balked at changes to the filibuster rules, dug into his position earlier, putting the responsibility of the economic crisis squarely on the shoulders of Senate leaders to solve.
"This should not be a crisis. I've been very, very clear where I stand, where I stand on the filibuster. I don't have to repeat that. I think I've been very clear. Nothing change," Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill. "But the bottom line is we have a responsibility to be the adults. Our leadership has the responsibility to lead."
"The only thing I can say at this time to Leader Schumer, and to Leader McConnell, please, lead, work together," he added.
Schumer had said earlier on the floor that the Senate must move forward with "the responsible thing and vote to allow the U.S. to keep paying its bills."
"Republicans' obstruction on the debt ceiling over the last few weeks has been reckless and irresponsible but nevertheless, Republicans will today have the opportunity to get what they've been asking for," Schumer said in the morning. "The first and easiest option is this: Republicans can simply get out of the way, and we can agree to skip the filibuster vote so we can proceed to final passage of this bill."
But Republicans letting Democrats govern so easily, despite Democrats suspending the debt ceiling multiple times in a divided Washington under former President Donald Trump.
GOP leaders have maintained for months that Democrats must act to raise the federal debt limit on their own, because they have total control of Washington and are planning to pass a multi-trillion social and economic package without Republican support.
But Democrats and Biden have reiterated that paying off U.S. debt is a historically bipartisan measure and that the funds Congress would be approving were spent, in part, under then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell.
McConnell has said repeatedly that Democrats should have to hike the debt limit to cover the cost of potentially trillions in yet-passed parts of Biden's agenda, though the debt limit must be raised to cover spending that already took place under the Trump administration with unified GOP support.
Amid Democrats' calls for carving out the filibuster, McConnell told members in a lunch meeting about the two options: a short-term extension or an expedited reconciliation process -- but those would also give Republicans exactly what they're asking for politically: an increase to the nation's borrowing limit approved solely by Democrats, for the GOP to seize on in midterms.
White House economists and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have warned that without action, Americans will feel the real-world effects of a self-inflicted economic crisis in the coming days. Consequences include delays to Social Security payments and checks to servicemembers, a suspension of veterans' benefits, and rising interest rates on credit cards, car loans and mortgages.
