House passes GOP debt bill over objections of Obama, Democrats; Senate votes to table 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered a letter Saturday afternoon to Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), signed by 43 Republicans, declaring that Reid’s debt-limit legislation was unacceptable. Needing 60 votes to clear a filibuster hurdle, Reid’s current draft is assured of failure in a 1 a.m. vote Sunday. 
 
 McConnell demanded that President Obama re-engage in negotiations. “It isn’t going to pass, let’s get talking to the administration,” McConnell said Saturday in a floor speech. 
 
 House GOP leaders had won narrow approval of a plan to raise the federal debt limit Friday after revising the measure to appeal to rebellious conservatives, but it was quickly shot down in the Senate, where Democrats began pushing their own plan to avert a national default. 
 
 Heading into the final weekend before the Treasury expects to begin running short of cash to pay the nation’s bills, Reid introduced a new version of his plan to grant the government additional borrowing authority into 2013, setting up the crucial Sunday morning vote in the Senate. 
 
 Democrats conceded that they still lack the votes to repel a GOP filibuster. Reid beseeched his Republican counterpart, McConnell, to join him in reworking the measure so the Senate could pass it and send it back to the House before slumping financial markets open Monday morning. 
 
 But in a phone call Friday evening, McConnell told Reid he wanted the White House at the table and expressed frustration that President Obama had rejected an emerging compromise between the two Senate leaders last weekend. Aides said McConnell expected to speak with administration officials Friday night and tamped down talk of an impasse. But Senate Democratic leaders reacted with outrage, accusing McConnell of blocking a deal. 
 
 “Unless there is a compromise or they accept my bill, we’re headed for economic disaster,” Reid said. 
 
 The late-night jousting in the Senate followed a vote on House Speaker John A. Boehner’s debt-limit measure, which would extend the Treasury’s borrowing power until early next year and force another economy-rattling fistfight within a few months. 
 
 Drafted largely by aides to Reid and McConnell last weekend, the measure was originally designed to appeal to the more centrist Senate. But Boehner (R-Ohio) could not rally enough support from his tea-party-influenced caucus and had to rewrite it at the 11th hour to add a provision that would compel Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. 
 
 The change swayed a handful of holdouts, and the measure passed 218 to 210, with every Democrat and more than 20 Republicans voting no. But the episode was a loss of face for the speaker and his leadership team, demonstrating a lack of clout within their own conference. Even their allies in the Senate were stunned. 
 
 “Yes, people can be critical of what we’ve done, but where are the other ideas?” Boehner said on the House floor. “At this point in time, the House is going to act and we’re going to act together.” 
 
 Ultimately, it was for naught. Within two hours, the Senate tabled the measure, 59 to 41, with six conservative Republicans joining all 53 senators in the Democratic caucus in voting against the bill. 
 
 Throughout the day, senators in both parties held out hope for a bipartisan compromise to resolve the relatively small, but significant, differences between the House and Senate bills. 
 
 “We’ve gone through all this acrimony. It’s been painful for everybody to watch, I know,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) “But I’m very confident that soon we’re going to get to a place where we’ll have a bill that can pass both chambers. And I’m totally confident that the American people have nothing to worry about as it relates to Tuesday.” 
 
 
 
 Before the House vote, President Obama added to the chorus calling for compromise. He argued that the two parties are not “miles apart” and that he was prepared to work “all weekend long until we find a solution.” 
 
 At their core, the House and Senate bills are strikingly similar, having emerged from the same bipartisan talks last weekend. Both call for cutting deeply into agency budgets over the next decade and creating a new 12-member committee of lawmakers tasked with identifying trillions of dollars in additional cuts by the end of this year. 
 
 But Reid’s bill would justify a larger increase in the debt limit by counting more than $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, savings Republicans dismiss as an accounting gimmick. 
 
 Boehner’s bill would give the Treasury a much shorter reprieve and require the committee to come up with $1.8 trillion in additional savings before the government could be granted additional borrowing power. 
 
 A new version of the legislation Reid unveiled Friday went a small part of the way to bridging the difference by aligning the size of the debt-limit increase and the spending cuts at $2.4 trillion. He kept the war savings, a sticking point for Republicans, but added a two-stage process for Obama to raise the debt limit without explicit congressional approval. 
 
 In brief remarks at the White House, Obama said the two sides are “in rough agreement” about the size of the first round of spending cuts and “the next step” to rein in borrowing. “If we need to put in place some kind of enforcement mechanism to hold us all accountable for making these reforms, I’ll support that, too, if it’s done in a smart and balanced way,” Obama said. 
 
 Future cuts 
 
 Talks have been underway for weeks about how to structure a plan so that both parties are encouraged to engage seriously in negotiations over future debt reduction. Democrats want to require both tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts — which would be unattractive to many lawmakers — if the committee refuses to come up with recommendations for added savings. But Republicans have rejected any trigger that includes a tax hike. 
 
 On Friday, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said the design of that mechanism “is what all the negotiations are about.” He added, “That’s going to part of the endgame.” 
 
 Without such an agreement, Obama warned that the United States stands to lose its sterling AAA credit rating — “not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills. We do. But because we didn’t have a triple-A political system to match our triple-A credit rating.” 
 
 Obama again urged Americans to contact their representatives, clogging Capitol Hill switchboards for a second time this week. The White House also tweeted a number of Twitter handles for Republican lawmakers so voters could press them to “get past this.” 
 
 The president’s lobbying campaign appeared to have little effect in the House, where attempts by Boehner to move toward the center were forcefully rebuffed. 
 
 GOP divisions 
 
 Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had staked their personal reputations on the ability to deliver an all-Republican majority for the legislation. 
 
 They explained to their rank and file that despite broad Republican support in the House for a balanced-budget amendment, an earlier bill including the proposal could not pass the Senate. And the leaders pleaded with GOP lawmakers to support Boehner’s legislation, arguing that a majority for the bill would give McConnell leverage to push it through the Senate — or at least to force concessions from Reid. 
 
 Aides described the vote on the bill as nothing short of a vote of confidence in the leadership. All three leaders predicted victory. 
 
 But Thursday night, they were still short by as many as a dozen votes. So they pulled the bill and rewrote it to meet the demands of the conservative rebels. The balanced-budget amendment was put back into the bill. 
 
 For 23 hours, neither Boehner nor any other Republican leader issued a formal statement or paused in the Capitol hallways to explain to reporters what had happened. On Friday, a chastened Boehner spoke in favor of the rewrite and defended his earlier effort to cut a far-reaching debt-reduction deal with Obama. 
 
 “I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile,” Boehner said. “But a lot of people in this town can never say yes.” 
 
 Democrats openly mocked Boehner’s inability to lead his caucus. 
 
 “He didn’t have a plan. By Tuesday, they announced they couldn’t call a vote. Well, maybe Wednesday. No, on Wednesday, they couldn’t call a vote. And then on Thursday, again, they failed to have the majority to call a vote. And so we waited,” Durbin told reporters. 
 
 Even some Senate Republicans were perplexed by the disarray in the House. 
 
 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) re-affirmed his criticism of the balanced-budget amendment as “bizarro.” 
 
 And Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who served under Boehner in House leadership until his election to the Senate last year, said the rewritten House bill “may be more of a repeat” of the failed “cut, cap, balance” approach championed by conservatives “instead of a movement to being part of the solution.” 
 
 Boehner was “upbeat” during a luncheon with Senate Republicans, participants said, but senators exiting the meeting readily conceded that the House bill would not survive in the Senate. Blunt said talks were focused on finding a compromise that could pass the Democratic Senate and win support from a majority of Boehner’s Republicans. 
 
 “Not all of his members, but a majority,” Blunt said. 
 
 Boehner is likely to suffer defections if he brings up a Senate-passed compromise, and he would need House Democrats to fill in the gaps — a difficult position for him politically. But GOP senators said they believe Boehner stands ready to do what it takes to avoid a default. 
 
 “I think things are moving better than they appear to be moving,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). “There’s agreement on cuts. And there’s almost unanimous knowledge that default is not in the cards. That’s the heart of the issue. The rest of it’s details.” ||||| Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is in active negotiation with the White House on a debt ceiling deal, and Democrats agreed late Saturday night to postpone a partisan-tinged cloture vote to give time for both sides to find a compromise. 
 
 “There are many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.” 
 
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 “I’m glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. I hope it bears fruit.” 
 
 Just hours before Reid had sparred on the floor with McConnell over the seriousness of his efforts, and Reid’s change of tone — and tactics — suggested that real progress had been made. “We’re getting close,” said one GOP leadership aide, with knowledge of the discussions. 
 
 “In the category of getting serious, I have spoken to both the president and the vice president within the last hour,” McConnell had told reporters earlier in day in a joint appearance with Speaker John Boehner. “We are now fully engaged, the speaker and I, with the one person in America out of 307 million people who can sign a bill into law. I’m confident and optimistic that we’re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people.” 
 
 Boehner echoed McConnell’s statement, saying he believed that “we are going to be able to come to some sort of agreement.” But the speaker appears to have had no contact himself with President Barack Obama Saturday, while McConnell spoke to the president and reached out to Biden, after which the two men engaged in at least four back-and-forth phone calls through the day. 
 
 The biggest two outstanding issues are the Republicans’ insistence on “dollar-for-dollar” deficit reductions –without new tax revenues—to match any increase in the Treasury’s borrowing authority. And second, what enforcement mechanism is best to ensure that a new joint House-Senate committee will be able to come up with an estimated $1.6 trillion in savings by the end of this year. 
 
 Boehner has said that if the panel fails to meet its target, Obama can’t raise the debt ceiling— a concession that the president refuses to make since it only means more instability six months from now. The White House wants to substitute some alternative trigger that would still be action-forcing but not a threat to the whole economy. Biden is exploring options with McConnell, but even if a compromise is found, the cuts demanded by Boehner now are far larger than what the speaker had been willing to accept from Obama just last week. 
 
 One trigger option that has gained favor would impose across-the-board cuts on spending with the idea of inflicting enough pain that both parties would have an interest in meeting the joint committee's deficit target. Since Republicans have opposed any such sequester impacting revenues, the compromise now is likely to include deep defense cuts, a second priority for the GOP and therefore something of a lever. 
 
 Democrats are fearful that their own priorities—more revenues and fewer Medicare savings—will get lost in the process. And Reid didn’t hide his skepticism after returning from a 90 minute meeting with Obama, Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the White House. 
 
 “Boehner won’t even negotiate and McConnell is going backward,” said one aide close to the situation. And Reid bluntly accused McConnell of engaging more for show that real compromise. 
 
 “The Republican leader says he’s engaged,” Reid said ruefully. “Fortunately, members of his caucus, at least as far as I’m concerned, are more engaged than he is. There are meaningful talks going on with some of his members with my senators.” 
 
 McConnell shot back, “I actually cut short a conversation with the vice president” to come to the floor. 
 
 The Democrats bigger worry is Boehner, who shows signs of simply running-out-the-clock, playing hard-to-get with Obama and hoping the White House will give into his demands. ||||| Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDemocrats seek to turn Kavanaugh anger into votes Republicans seize on Kavanaugh confirmation going into midterms McConnell: 'Simply inaccurate' that Senate is broken after Kavanaugh fight MORE (R-Ky.) on Tuesday laid out a plan to avoid a national default and put responsibility for increasing the debt limit squarely on President Obama. 
 
 McConnell’s proposal would authorize Obama to raise the debt ceiling in three steps, and would not require any corresponding spending cuts. 
 
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 The proposal met immediate, fierce criticism from grassroots conservatives, who are furious at the lack of firm spending cuts, but House GOP leaders and the White House held their fire. 
 
 Under the legislation, Congress could only block Obama’s requests by passing resolutions of disapproval, which would have to be supported by two-thirds of both the Senate and House to overcome an expected presidential veto. 
 
 McConnell described his proposal as a “last choice option” to avoid a national default if Congress fails to reach a compromise to raise the debt limit by Aug. 2. 
 
 “It’s extremely important that the country reassure the markets that default is not an option and reassure Social Security recipients and families of military veterans that default is not an option,” McConnell said. 
 
 The proposal was briefly discussed at a White House meeting on Tuesday. Obama and congressional leaders are scheduled to meet again Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 McConnell’s plan would benefit Republicans politically by placing the responsibility for raising the debt limit almost entirely with Obama. It would allow Republicans in both chambers to vote en masse against it without causing a national economic catastrophe. 
 
 It could also hurt Senate Democrats by forcing them to support several hikes to the debt ceiling ahead of an election in which they must defend 23 seats, though Republicans expect centrist Democrats would be able to vote against the requests, given the high threshold for overriding a veto. 
 
 The problem with McConnell’s plan for Republicans is the prospect of a conservative backlash because it would allow Obama to raise the debt ceiling without having to agree to deep spending cuts. 
 
 In a possible sign of trouble to come, members of the Senate Tea Party Caucus left a GOP lunch early on Tuesday where McConnell presented his proposal, and declined to comment on the plan. 
 
 Other GOP leaders presented the proposal with McConnell, including Sens. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderGOP senator: If Kavanaugh wasn't angry during testimony, 'people would be very suspicious' How Kavanaugh got the votes GOP confident Collins will back Kavanaugh MORE (Tenn.) and John Barrasso John Anthony BarrassoOvernight Energy — Presented by Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance — Judge upholds Obama's marine monument | GOP lawmakers worried states using water rule to block fossil fuels | Lawmakers press Trump ahead of ethanol decision GOP senators ask EPA to block states that have 'hijacked' rule to stop fossil fuel production Senate sends bill regulating airline seat sizes to Trump MORE (Wyo.). 
 
 Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulRepublicans come full circle with Supreme Court battle to the end Senate sends bill regulating airline seat sizes to Trump Sasse: I encouraged Trump to pick someone other than Kavanaugh MORE (R-Ky.) said he preferred to focus on what he supports, namely the “cut, cap and balance” plan that would require Congress to pass a balanced-budget amendment before approving an increase in the debt limit. 
 
 Conservative activists and one GOP candidate for president immediately denounced the legislation. 
 
 FreedomWorks, a Tea Party-affiliated group, tweeted: “Sen. McConnell thinks cutting funding is too hard. Help him find his spine!” 
 
 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a presidential candidate, bashed it as “an irresponsible surrender to Big Government, big deficits and continued overspending.” 
 
 Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform said McConnell’s plan could be a smart strategy because it would force Obama to put in writing what spending cuts he would support. To the extent it does this and forces Senate Democrats to vote on an Obama plan, it is a good one, he said in an interview. 
 
 Asked if House Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerTrump and son signal support for McCarthy as next Speaker Under attack: Because we don’t vote Republican Democrats should be careful what they wish for MORE (R-Ohio) had OK’d the Senate GOP’s fallback plan, McConnell told reporters Tuesday that he had “spoken about it with others.” 
 
 Boehner John Andrew BoehnerTrump and son signal support for McCarthy as next Speaker Under attack: Because we don’t vote Republican Democrats should be careful what they wish for MORE appeared open to the McConnell plan in an interview after the meeting with Fox News. “I understand Mitch’s frustrations, because we’re all frustrated by where we are,” the Speaker said. “I think everybody believes there needs to be a backup plan if we are unable to come to an agreement. And frankly I think Mitch has done good work.” 
 
 Some Republican aides in the House said McConnell’s proposal could not be passed. 
 
 “Why would we give the president the power to bypass Congress on this? I think McConnell threw it out to shake things up, as I don’t see how it could ever pass the House,” said one House GOP aide. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidRepublicans come full circle with Supreme Court battle to the end Fate of Republican Party is tied to Kavanaugh — so don't flake on us The Senate strikes back with the Flake flip MORE (D-Nev.), however, said he was willing to consider McConnell’s proposal. 
 
 “I’m willing to look at this, and I don’t, in any way, disparage what Sen. McConnell’s come up with,” Reid said. “He and I have had a number of meetings over the last few weeks, talking about the concern we both have.” 
 
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 Administration officials estimate they’ll need to raise the debt limit by about $2.5 trillion to take them into the late winter or spring of 2013, when Republicans could control both chambers of Congress and perhaps the White House as well. 
 
 A Senate Republican leadership aide said the McConnell plan would force Obama to ask the Congress three times to raise the debt limit and would require the president to recommend hundreds of billions in spending cuts. 
 
 The first request, expected later this month, must be accompanied by $700 billion in recommended spending cuts. The second and third requests, coming in the fall of 2011 and summer of 2012, would be matched with $900 billion in recommended cuts. But, to the dismay of conservatives, there’s no guarantee the cuts would pass Congress or survive a veto. 
 
 Public polling shows more people oppose raising the debt limit than support it and Republican strategists believe they now have leverage on the issue. But GOP leaders think public opinion could shift quickly if Congress fails to raise the debt limit. 
 
 “Democrats have the leverage if we have to pay the Saudi royal family the money we owe them and granny doesn’t get her check,” said a Senate GOP aide. 
 
 Obama launched a subtle pre-emptive attack Tuesday by warning that he could not guarantee that Social Security checks would be sent on Aug. 3, the day after the Treasury Department said it would run out of money to pay U.S. bills. 
 
 Economists have warned a default on the debt would send the stock market plunging, boost interest rates and make mortgages, auto loans and credit card payments more expensive. 
 
 Business leaders, who are traditionally strong allies of the GOP, have grown impatient. Several major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, sent a letter Tuesday to Obama and lawmakers urging them to set partisan differences aside and reach a deal. 
 
 -- Erik Wasson contributed to this report. 
 
 -- Originally published at 3:07 p.m. and updated at 8:55 p.m.
– It's Harry Reid's turn to hit legislative turbulence. The House today rejected the Senate leader's plan to raise the debt ceiling in a move seen largely as symbolic, reports AP. The real fight, however, is taking place in the Senate, where GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a letter to Reid signed by 43 Republicans vowing to oppose his plan when it comes up for a vote set for 1am EST Sunday. Those numbers guarantee that Reid would not be able to fend off a filibuster, reports the Washington Post. “It isn’t going to pass,” said McConnell, who demanded that the White House rejoin negotiations. “Let’s get talking to the administration.” The big hope to avoid a default is that Reid and McConnell can somehow forge a bipartisan compromise, but the two were mainly sniping at each other today, notes Politico. “We welcome compromise,” Reid said. “As recently as yesterday, I asked my friend, the Senate minority leader, to help make this Senate compromise more palatable, but we have heard very little from Republicans.”