Reid Calls McConnell's Bluff on Debt Ceiling
Dec. 6 1:52 PM
Jonathan Weisman
... The plan, first dreamed up last year by Mr. McConnell, would allow the president to raise the borrowing limit on his own. Congress would be able to disallow the debt-ceiling increase, but such a move could only be sustained by a two-thirds majority vote, since the president could veto the legislation blocking the debt ceiling rise.
Mr. McConnell, believing some Democrats would vote against the president’s debt-ceiling proposal, moved Thursday to put it on the Senate floor for a quick vote. If it could not muster a majority, Republicans would say Mr. Obama cannot even unify his own party.
But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, called Mr. McConnell’s bluff. He said he would put the McConnell debt-ceiling proposal to a vote if Mr. McConnell would let it pass with a simple majority, not a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Seeing he overplayed his hand, Mr. McConnell objected ...
“What we have is here a case of Republicans not taking yes for an answer,” Mr. Reid replied as Mr. McConnell began a filibuster of his own bill.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/politics/debt-reckoning.html