WASHINGTON -- A Republican plan that would have hiked the nation's debt ceiling for only six months and left the country's spending captive to a "Super Congress" failed to advance in the House Thursday night, with Democrats and Tea Party-backed Republicans opposing the plan. 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had initially scheduled a 6 p.m. vote on his measure which, in addition to raising the debt ceiling, would have cut $915 billion in spending and set up a 12-legislator commission to compel another $1.8 trillion in reductions over 10 years. The vote was then postponed to later Thursday night, but House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced just before 10:30 p.m. that a vote would not occur until the following morning at least. 
 
 Boehner had already gone back and restructured his plan, after the Congressional Budget Office revealed Tuesday that it contained only $850 billion in cuts -- less than the plan put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). 
 
 But even after his plan was re-scored -- and he spent more than a day leaning on reluctant members -- Boehner was short at least three votes, sources said. 
 
 The Hill reported that the $17 billion in funding for Pell grants contained in the bill, added in part to lure some Democrats, was a major stumbling block for some members. And many Tea Party-backed Republican freshmen oppose any increase in the debt ceiling whatsoever. 
 
 Boehner and his leadership team worked for hours, but they were unable to salvage the bill and secure the votes, marking a stunning failure for a party leader on a crucial piece of legislation. 
 
 It was unclear if Boehner would try to bring the bill up again, or if the way was now clear for Reid to advance his plan, which would cut $2.2 trillion over ten years and raise the debt ceiling enough to last into 2013. 
 
 Democrats suspected Boehner's efforts were done. "If he can’t get the votes tonight he’ll never get them. You can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube," one Senate leadership aide said. 
 
 The high-stakes showdown marks the first time in U.S. history that the nation has come so close to being unable to pay its bills. The debt limit -- $14.3 trillion -- was hit in May, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been using emergency measures since then to juggle the books. He has warned that if the limit is not increased by Aug. 2, the federal government will risk defaulting on its obligations. 
 
 Raising the debt ceiling has historically been a routine procedure; Congress has done it dozens of times in the past with no strings attached. 
 
 Yet even as Geithner and other economists have warned of calamitous consequences if the nation defaults, Tea Party-backed Republicans have insisted on linking payment of the country’s bills to huge cuts in future spending. 
 
 That position started out as a relatively popular one, with many Americans also opposed to raising the debt limit altogether. But many have since changed their minds; recent polls have shown that while most Americans think spending cuts are important, they also believe that the debt limit must be increased before the federal government defaults. 
 
 As credit rating agencies have warned that they may downgrade the United States' debt, a move that could increase interest rates on home loans, student loans, and credit card bills, Americans have become more and more concerned. The slight hike in interest rates that would result from the country losing its AAA credit rating would also mean the federal government would face an extra $100 billion a year in borrowing costs. 
 
 Ironically, the speaker wound up in such a tough spot after he walked out of talks at the White House, where he was negotiating a "grand bargain" with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. Boehner left, he said, because the president was seeking too much in revenue. Yet while the sides differed on the details, the deficit reduction package would have ultimately been larger than either Boehner's or Reid's, and would have included around $1 trillion in revenues paired with some $3 trillion in cuts. 
 
 Republicans have been adamant that taxes cannot be raised on the wealthy, and that corporate tax loopholes and oil subsidies cannot be ended. Many members of the Tea Party have continued to insist, meanwhile, that warnings of catastrophe were exaggerated and the debt ceiling should not be raised at all. 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) released a statement soon after Boehner gave up for the night, suggesting he had simply gone too far. 
 
 “Hopefully, now the Republicans will come back to the table to negotiate a bipartisan, balanced agreement that is overwhelmingly supported by the American people," Pelosi said. “Republicans have taken us to the brink of economic chaos. The delay must end now so we can focus on the American people’s top priority: creating jobs and growing the economy.” 
 
 What happens now depends on whether Boehner keeps trying. 
 
 Even if Boehner is able to get his bill through the House, a Senate Democratic aide told The Huffington Post that Reid would quickly move to defeat the measure, then put his own package up for a vote. 
 
 Democrats may also focus on getting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) back to the negotiating table. Exactly what McConnell would demand was unclear, but Democrats could propose some sort of trigger mechanism that would force deeper cuts later in exchange for a debt ceiling hike now -- an idea that GOP lawmakers may find agreeable, but which advocates for the poor and elderly believe would be devastating to the social safety net. 
 
 The savings in Reid's plan come primarily from discretionary spending cuts and the drawdown of troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Like Boehner's plan, it would set up a super committee of 12 lawmakers to propose additional cuts, including entitlement reforms, which would then go to the House and Senate for simple up-or-down votes. But Reid’s version, unlike Boehner's, guarantees the debt ceiling is extended into 2013, which would push it past the next elections and which many ratings agencies would prefer. 
 
 If Reid can get the legislation out of the Senate -- where there would be at least one filibuster vote -- the measure might be able to attract enough Democrats and Republicans to pass it in the House. There also remains a chance that leaders could revive McConnell's idea of voting to give the White House authority to make cuts and debt limit hikes in three steps. 
 
 Jennifer Bendery and Elise Foley contributed reporting. ||||| Reid: The House is ‘having trouble’ conducting its work 
 
 By Josiah Ryan - 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized his colleagues in the House for failing to send the upper chamber the material it needs to work before he adjourned the Senate just before 11 p.m. Thursday. 
 
 “I apologize to everyone for the late hour, but we’ve been waiting for the House to conduct their business and they’re having trouble conducting it,” Reid said. “As a result of their not sending us the material we needed, we are going to have to wait until tomorrow to do our work.” 
 
 House Republican leadership postponed a vote on Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) deficit-reduction plan indefinitely as they scrambled to whip together enough votes for it to clear the lower chamber. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finally announced at around 10:30 p.m. that the vote would not take place Thursday. 
 
 Reid said the Senate would convene at 9:30 a.m. Friday and quickly recess to accommodate a Senate Democratic Conference meeting. The Senate will reconvene at 11 a.m. ||||| After emerging from a lengthy closed-door meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders late Sunday afternoon, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked whether he expects a vote on the deal tonight. 
 
 “I hope so,” he told reporters. 
 
 But sources in both parties said all sides were close to signing off on the emerging agreement except House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). While the reason for the hangup was not immediately clear, the framework has the potential to trigger big cuts in the defense budget. Defense cuts are likely to be problematic for many of the veteran Republicans Boehner will need to push a compromise through the House. A Boehner spokesman did not immediately respond to questions. 
 
 Meanwhile, as expected, the Senate failed to break the 60-vote threshold to end debate on a bill by Reid’s (D-Nev.) bill to raise the debt ceiling by $2.2 trillion in an early afternoon vote on Sunday as the outlines of the deal between Senate leaders and the White House began to take shape. Fifty senators voted to end debate on Reid’s bill and 49 opposed stopping it. 
 
 The winds began shifting towards a deal shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday night when Reid announced that talks between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden had made significant progress, prompting Reid to delay a vote that had been scheduled for 1 a.m. Sunday on his own debt-limit measure. 
 
 “Relief” is the way Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the mood on Capitol Hill on CNN’s State of the Nation Sunday morning. “Default is far less of a possibility now then it was even a day ago, because the leaders are talking and talking in a constructive way.” 
 
 But, Schumer added, “There are lots of things that are not filled in.” 
 
 On the same show, McConnell echoed that “we had a good day yesterday” and the parties “were very close” to crafting a deal framework that he could “soon” recommend that Senate Republicans support. 
 
 “We’re not going to have default,” McConnell stated. 
 
 “There are negotiations going on at the White House to avert a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt,” Reid said, after announcing that the vote had been pushed back to 1 p.m. Sunday. “There are many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed. But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.” 
 
 He added: “I’m glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. I hope it bears fruit.” ||||| With the default deadline just two days away, prospects for a debt-limit deal seemed to significantly brighten early Sunday after the White House entered intense negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday in a last-ditch bid to forge a bipartisan agreement to raise the federal debt limit. 
 
 Late Sunday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had given his approval to the emerging debt deal, but must still present the plan to his caucus possibly later Sunday evening. “Senator Reid has signed off on the debt-ceiling agreement pending caucus approval,” his office said. 
 
 After emerging from a lengthy closed-door meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders late Sunday afternoon, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked whether he expects a vote on the deal tonight. 
 
 “I hope so,” he told reporters. 
 
 But sources in both parties said all sides were close to signing off on the emerging agreement except House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). While the reason for the hangup was not immediately clear, the framework has the potential to trigger big cuts in the defense budget. Defense cuts are likely to be problematic for many of the veteran Republicans Boehner will need to push a compromise through the House. A Boehner spokesman did not immediately respond to questions. 
 
 Meanwhile, as expected, the Senate failed to break the 60-vote threshold to end debate on a bill by Reid’s (D-Nev.) bill to raise the debt ceiling by $2.2 trillion in an early afternoon vote on Sunday as the outlines of the deal between Senate leaders and the White House began to take shape. Fifty senators voted to end debate on Reid’s bill and 49 opposed stopping it. 
 
 The winds began shifting towards a deal shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday night when Reid announced that talks between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden had made significant progress, prompting Reid to delay a vote that had been scheduled for 1 a.m. Sunday on his own debt-limit measure. 
 
 “Relief” is the way Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the mood on Capitol Hill on CNN’s State of the Nation Sunday morning. “Default is far less of a possibility now then it was even a day ago, because the leaders are talking and talking in a constructive way.” 
 
 But, Schumer added, “There are lots of things that are not filled in.” 
 
 On the same show, McConnell echoed that “we had a good day yesterday” and the parties “were very close” to crafting a deal framework that he could “soon” recommend that Senate Republicans support. 
 
 “We’re not going to have default,” McConnell stated. 
 
 “There are negotiations going on at the White House to avert a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt,” Reid said, after announcing that the vote had been pushed back to 1 p.m. Sunday. “There are many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed. But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.” 
 
 He added: “I’m glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. I hope it bears fruit.” 
 
 The emerging agreement calls for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit by up to $2.4 trillion in two stages, with the debt limit rising unless two-thirds of both chambers of Congress disapprove, according to officials in both parties familiar with the talks. That would extend the Treasury’s borrowing authority into 2013, satisfying President Obama’s demand to avoid another showdown over the issue in the heat of the 2012 presidential campaign. 
 
 The first stage would pair an increase of roughly $1 trillion with cuts to government agencies of about the same magnitude over the next decade. In the second stage, a special congressional committee would be created to identify additional savings later this year. The size of those savings would dictate the size of the second debt-limit increase, giving Republicans the dollar-for-dollar matchup they have demanded between spending cuts and the debt-limit increase. 
 
 The focus of talks Saturday was a mechanism to force the committee to act and to ensure that Congress adopts its recommendations. Late Saturday, McConnell and Biden appeared to have settled on a trigger that would cut most government spending – including the defense budget and Medicare — by as much as 4 percent if the committee failed to produce a plan to tame the spiraling national debt, the officials said. 
 
 It was not immediately clear whether Boehner would accept the emerging framework, or whether he could persuade his fractious conference to support it. But Boehner, too, showed signs of paving the way for compromise Saturday, convening a meeting of the Tuesday Group, a bloc of about 45 moderate Republicans whose votes would be key to pushing any deal through the House. 
 
 “I’d like a big, bold, bipartisan plan. I think that’s what the country needs,” Rep. Robert J. Dold (R-Ill.) said after the meeting. “It’s certainly something I’m looking for.” 
 
 Reid’s announcement of progress in the talks shattered an air of desperation that had settled over the Capitol earlier in the day as rank-and-file lawmakers pleaded with their leaders to set politics aside and strike a bipartisan deal. After months of negotiation and weeks of debate, every black-and-white plan for cutting government spending and raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling was doomed or had already been shot down. 
 
 As the battle entered its final hours, the nation’s leaders were left bickering among themselves, unable to agree even on a modest version of the deal they said they were close to sealing a week ago. Their remaining differences were not especially large, but a resolution appeared elusive. 
 
 “It really shouldn’t be this difficult,” Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. “I believe there’s a bipartisan consensus here in the Senate . . . if we stop talking past each other.” 
 
 Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, Reid and McConnell conducted separate talks with the White House in search of an agreement. But the two men were barely speaking to each other, and their anger boiled over onto the Senate floor. 
 
 Reid accused McConnell of blocking the path to compromise that many Senate Republicans were eager to pursue. 
 
 “While the Republican leader is holding meaningless press conferences, his members are reaching out to me . . . to try to move the process forward,” Reid said testily, referring to a midafternoon news conference when McConnell and announced that they were in direct talks with Obama. 
 
 McConnell fired back that he was “more optimistic than my friend, the majority leader,” after negotiating privately with Biden. “I think we’ve got a chance of getting there,” McConnell said. 
 
 “We’re going to get a result on a bipartisan basis. That’s what I’m working on,” McConnell added, complaining that he had been forced to “cut short a conversation with the vice president” to answer Reid’s summons to a meaningless procedural vote. “I’d actually like to get back to work.” 
 
 A Democratic official familiar with the talks said Biden and McConnell were focused on combining the debt-limit plans that emerged from bipartisan negotiations among congressional leaders last weekend. That effort was cut short by Democrats, including Obama. The next day, Reid and Boehner unveiled very similar bills that would cut deeply into agency budgets and create a 12-member committee to find more savings by the end of the year. 
 
 The key difference was the length of the debt-limit extension. Boehner’s bill, which passed the House but died in the Senate, would have granted a reprieve only through February or March 2013, after the 2012 election is decided. Unless the committee came up with $1.8 trillion in additional savings, Congress would face another standoff over the debt limit. 
 
 Reid’s bill, which was pending in the Senate on Saturday, would increase the debt limit into 2013 and count $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a move Republicans decried as an accounting gimmick. 
 
 To bridge the divide, McConnell and administration officials had been trying all week to design a mechanism to force the committee to act, giving Republicans their cuts and Obama his debt-limit increase. 
 
 Republicans were opposed to a trigger that would force automatic tax increases; Democrats were opposed to a trigger with spending cuts only. 
 
 On Saturday, Democrats appeared to have conceded the point in exchange for big automatic defense cuts, which they said would give Republicans a powerful incentive to work with Democrats toward a more palatable compromise. 
 
 Unless Congress lifts the debt limit by Tuesday, Treasury officials have said they will begin to run out of cash to pay the nation’s bills. That could force the government into default, an outcome that could devastate the sputtering U.S. recovery and global financial markets. Over the past week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 540 points amid rising anxiety about the debate in Washington. 
 
 As talks with the White House got underway Saturday, McConnell appeared briefly with Boehner to assure the nation that a resolution was at hand. 
 
 “Our country is not going to default for the first time in history; that is not going to happen,” McConnell said. “We now have a level of seriousness, with the right people at the table.” 
 
 All day Saturday, however, both parties were on the attack. In the House, Republicans were smarting over the Senate’s quick Friday night defeat of Boehner’s proposal for a short-term debt-limit increase. So the GOP returned the favor with a unanimous vote in opposition to Reid’s proposal to increase the debt limit into 2013. 
 
 It was not a real vote. The Reid measure was still pending before the Senate. So Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, drew up his own version of the Reid bill and sent it to its death on the House floor, where 11 Democrats joined Republicans in rejecting the measure, 246 to 173. 
 
 “There are some good things in Senator Reid’s proposals. But I will say this: I don’t believe that continuing down the road towards increasing debt ceilings without the kinds of checks necessary is the right thing to do,” Dreier said. 
 
 Even by House standards, the debate was rowdy and sharp-edged, as lawmakers in both parties hooted and shouted down their colleagues across the aisle. Republicans booed Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who accused Boehner of going “to the dark side” when he rewrote his debt-limit bill to add required passage of a balanced budget amendment — a change designed to appeal to his far-right wing. 
 
 Pelosi turned toward her GOP colleagues and said it again with emphasis. “Let me repeat,” she said, “he chose to go to the dark side.” 
 
 The atmosphere was just as tense and bitter in the Senate, where McConnell delivered a letter to Reid signed by 43 Republicans declaring their opposition to his version of the debt-limit bill. 
 
 Four Republican senators did not sign the letter: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). But there was little evidence that Reid’s bill could muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster — a fact Reid tacitly acknowledged when he rejected McConnell’s offer to stage a vote early Saturday evening. 
 
 “There are some good things in Senator Reid’s proposals. But I will say this: I don’t believe that continuing down the road towards increasing debt ceilings without the kinds of checks necessary is the right thing to do,” Dreier said. 
 
 In his weekly address, Obama repeated his call for a bipartisan compromise. 
 
 “It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people — not just one faction of one party,” the president said. “Congress must find common ground on a plan that can get support from both parties in the House. And it’s got to be a plan that I can sign by Tuesday.” 
 
 Read more on PostPolitics 
 
 Continuing coverage of the debt crisis 
 
 Democrats will lose now, can win later 
 
 Senate conservatives won’t delay vote 
 
 Default may hit consumers quickly 
 
 A Mitch McConnell moment 
 
 A tougher tests looms for John Boehner 
 
 Rachel Van Dongen contributed to this report. ||||| 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.
– Harry Reid tossed some zingers at Republicans last night after they failed to vote on John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan. Reid adjourned the Senate just before 11pm, the Hill reports, saying, “I apologize to everyone for the late hour, but we've been waiting for the House to conduct their business and they're having trouble conducting it.” Asked by a Talking Points Memo reporter if he had expected the non-vote, he replied, “With their performance the last few days, I don’t expect anything.” Indeed, the Washington Post offers a frankly hilarious look at yesterday’s scramble for votes in the House. One undecided Republican says that by 7:20am he’d been pestered three times—including once while he was naked in the gym. Boehner was apparently three votes short, sources tell the Huffington Post, with some reps bothered by the $17 billion in Pell Grants funding added to the bill in a bid to attract Democrats. The Republican caucus will meet at 10am this morning to try to pick up the pieces; Senate Democrats will meet around the same time. For more details, click here.