text: 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.” ||||| 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. ||||| The vote was 246-173. It was a pre-emptive vote in the high-stakes political fight as the Senate still hasn't voted on the measure from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The measure would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion while cutting spending by $2.2 trillion. 
   
   The vote could set the stage for negotiations on a compromise just three days before the Treasury says it will be unable to pay all the nation's bills. 
   
   Debate on the measure was often testy and reflected the growing frustration among lawmakers. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi pleaded for an end to "this theater of the absurd" and said "it's time for us to get real."
target: – 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.”