Republicans Scrounge Up 11 Senators To Break Filibuster, Advancing Debt Ceiling Increase

October 7, 2021
LOUISVILLE, KY-FEBRUARY 12: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) (R-KY) and U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wait the stage together at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center where Schumer was scheduled to speak February 12, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. Sen. Schumer spoke at the event as part of the Center's Distinguished Speaker Series, and Sen. McConnell introduced him. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - FEBRUARY 12: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) (R-KY) and U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wait the stage together at the University of Louisville's McConnell Cent... LOUISVILLE, KY - FEBRUARY 12: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) (R-KY) and U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wait the stage together at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center where Schumer was scheduled to speak February 12, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. Sen. Schumer spoke at the event as part of the Center's Distinguished Speaker Series, and Sen. McConnell introduced him. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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October 7, 2021

Hours after Senate leadership reached a deal on a debt ceiling extension, a few Republicans decided to make things significantly harder for their own party.

By refusing to allow the bill to move forward by unanimous consent, members like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) upped the vote threshold to 60 just to move the bill forward in consideration.

That set GOP leadership scrambling. McConnell, however, eventually found the votes he needed to overcome the filibuster, paving the way for the debt ceiling increase to advance shortly after 8 p.m. ET.

Follow our live coverage below:

More Less

Hours after Senate leadership reached a deal on a debt ceiling extension, a few Republicans decided to make things significantly harder for their own party.

By refusing to allow the bill to move forward by unanimous consent, members like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) upped the vote threshold to 60 just to move the bill forward in consideration.

That set GOP leadership scrambling. McConnell, however, eventually found the votes he needed to overcome the filibuster, paving the way for the debt ceiling increase to advance shortly after 8 p.m. ET.

Follow our live coverage below:

Notable Replies

  1. WHy is it THAt libtards are ALWAys wanTing to BE raisinG the Debt ceiLing? They Want tO in Republican ADMinistrations and LIBtard administrations.

  2. Avatar for 1gg 1gg says:

    Congress has always tinkered with the [debt ceiling, the statutory limit on amount of money the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its legal obligations, a grand total of 78 times since 1960 - 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.

    Trump and the GOP raised it 2 times.

  3. Avatar for 1gg 1gg says:

    This isn’t governing, it is kicking the can down the road.

  4. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    Won’t believe Moscow Mitch until the bill is signed into law.

  5. Hopefully, Schumer will announce the deal on the Senate floor in his usual morning remarks.

    My impression is that the Senate Dem Caucus was very determined not to allow Manchin/Sinema to force them to use reconciliation. The whole notion of bending over backwards to accommodate two refuseniks at the risk of default was absurd and they made that clear to both of them. Manchin and Sinema were cornered so they used their backchannels to McConnell to cook up this deal of a 2 month delay on the debt ceiling. McConnell wanted to tie it to reconciliation. The Dem Caucus seems to have taken the Manchinema-McConnell offer and turned it to their advantage.

    • The Dem Caucus told Manchinema-McConnell, ‘no dice on reconciliation’…ever.
    • The Dem Caucus then told Manchinema that they will accept the 2 month delay on the debt ceiling issue but on the condition that Manchinema get to ‘yes’ on the BBB, not just the framework, but the whole bill. Manchinema appear to have agreed to this. Now, there aren’t specific press reports confirming this point, but I am inferring this assessment based on the comments from the Senate Dems who declared ‘victory’ in this standoff. To a person each Dem said they looked forward to completing the BBB and BIF during this debt ceiling extension period. I don’t think they could’ve said so without getting a commitment from Manchinema that the ‘you know who two’ would be with the caucus on this.
    • Manchinema accepted the terms of the caucus for two reasons: 1. They don’t have to do a filibuster exception right now. Like McConnell, they hate and fear that more than anything. 2. They believe that if they get BBB done, the threat will likely go away because the purpose for issuing the threat (stopping BBB) will be moot as it will have passed into law.
    • The caucus was ok with this plan of a 2 month delay + passage of BBB/BIF in the interim b/c they think that either McConnell will fold on the debt ceiling threat post BBB, or, if Cruz/Lee et al try to blow things up and cause a debt default, they can lean on Manchinema to vote for a filibuster exception as they will have no choice at that point.

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