Key debt-ceiling votes loom in Congress as deadline nears

With the high-stakes vote just hours away, House Republican leaders on Thursday made a last-ditch effort to lock down support for their plan to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, expressing measured confidence that they could persuade skeptical conservatives to get onboard.

“We’re not there yet, we don’t have the votes yet. But today is the day,” House Speaker John Boehner told members at a morning meeting, according to a GOP source who was not authorized to discuss the private conversation.

But even as Republican leaders hunted for votes, Senate Democrats announced plans to put the brakes on the House bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said his chamber would vote Thursday night -- immediately after the House -- to block the Boehner bill.

“It will be defeated. No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now,” Reid said on the floor.

The volley of promises and threats has become a daily occurrence in the Capitol’s charged final countdown to the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the nation’s debt limit. After that date, administration officials say, the government will no longer be able to borrow money, a situation that could set off a chain reaction of potentially disastrous economic consequences.

After weekend negotiations on a compromise imploded, Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House put forward two rival plans to end the standoff. Neither plan has the bipartisan support necessary to pass the divided Congress. Both parties’ congressional leaders are trying to ensure that theirs is the last plan standing when the pressure from the financial markets and an angry public reaches a boiling point.

The plans have similarities and differ most notably on the amount of the debt-limit increase. Democrats maintain they will not vote for an increase that does not cover borrowing through 2012. Republicans call that demand a “blank check” and are seeking a short-term deal.

But Boehner and other top House leaders have had to spend the last 24 hours trying to focus on winning over their conservative colleagues, not Democrats. In an effort to recover from a right-flank revolt, House leaders tweaked their legislation this week to ensure billions of dollars more in federal spending cuts, although the measure still falls short of the $1.2 trillion over 10 years initially promised.

At the Thursday meeting, leaders announced they would be holding votes on two different balanced-budget amendments to the Constitution -- an attempt to win over members who feel Boehner’s bill falls short when it comes to promised structural budget reforms.

“This conference has moved a great deal in a short amount of time,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority whip, told reporters Thursday afternoon.

The willingness to tinker with the bill and tweak strategy in the final hours was evidence of the weight of Thursday’s vote. The bill is House Republicans’ last chance to seize the momentum in the debt-limit standoff as it rapidly comes to a head. Republican leaders do not believe there is time or the will to get another bill through the House.

“This bipartisan bill is as large a step as we’re able to take at this point,” Boehner said.

Failing to pass the measure would be a lasting blow to the Republican Party and Boehner’s speakership.

The son of an Ohio barkeep made it clear he would not let the measure fail without a fight. Boehner needs 216 votes for passage; if he loses about 25 GOP votes, it will fail.

In salty speeches and blunt badgering throughout the week, Boehner has made a forceful case for GOP unity at a critical moment for a party still recovering from the thumping in the 2008 elections and the grass-roots revolt that followed.

There was evidence the full court press was working. A handful of hard-line conservatives -- members who aligned themselves with the “tea party” -- announced they would vote for the bill. That list included Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), who announced his support at the morning meeting.

A group of freshmen Republicans held a news conference to voice support. “Is this as big as we wanted to go? Heck, no. But this is the only proposal on the table that accomplishes what we set out to do,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, a freshman from Wisconsin.

The Boehner bill would raise the debt limit in two stages -- one that could cover borrowing through the end of the year and another to cover 2012. The first increase is paired with $915 billion in spending cuts over 10 years. The second would be contingent on passage of larger deficit-reduction package crafted by a new congressional committee.

Rather than promising passage of a balanced-budget amendment -- a top priority for conservatives -- the bill only ensures a vote in both chambers. Such a vote would be largely symbolic. The GOP-preferred version of the amendment is widely rejected by Democrats and would fall well short of the two-thirds vote needed to pass.

GOP leaders hoped to signal they were interested in more than symbolism by adding a second balanced-budget amendment to the schedule. That amendment was written to be more palatable to Democrats, pleasing Republicans eager to see an amendment pass quickly.

Still, neither party has moved on what remains the stubborn sticking point -- the amount of the debt-limit increase.