UPDATE: Debt ceiling deal passes in Senate as Biden floats filibuster rules change

Update (10/8/21): The Senate approved a debt ceiling deal in a late Thursday night vote. The 50-48 vote paves the way for Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling by nearly a half-trillion dollars. The bill’s expected passing in the House would only hold off a potential default until December, setting up another showdown before the year’s end.

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Update (10/7/21): Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday the Democrats have accepted a debt ceiling deal to extend the government’s borrowing authority into December.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered the deal Wednesday afternoon, and Senate leaders worked late into the night working out the details to the deal.

“Our hope is to get this done as soon as today,” Schumer declared Thursday. “The Senate is moving forward,” McConnell added.

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Original Story (10/6/21): Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a deal to Democrats regarding the debt ceiling Wednesday. The deal would involve an emergency debt ceiling extension into December.

“This will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation,” McConnell said.

The Senate was expected to vote on whether to take up a bill to suspend the debt ceiling before the deal was offered. However, that vote was abruptly delayed.

With less than two weeks until the Treasury Department said it would have been left “with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly”, Democratic senators had been discussing a range of options regarding a debt ceiling vote. This includes getting rid of the filibuster.

“It’s a real possibility,” President Joe Biden told reporters outside the White House.

In order to invoke a filibuster rules change for the debt ceiling vote, all Democratic senators would need to be on board. However, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have raised objections to ending the filibuster on other topics this year. Sen. Manchin sounded resistant on the idea Tuesday.

Wednesday’s expected vote would have come on the same day the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report on what would happen if the U.S. did not make a deal on the debt ceiling.

“A default would fundamentally hinder the Federal government from serving the American people,” the council wrote in its report.

According to the council, not only would basic government functions be hindered if there is was successful debt ceiling vote, but “payments from the Federal government that families rely on to make ends meet would be endangered”.

People affected could include:

• Social Security recipients
• Medicare/Medicaid recipients
• Children’s Health Insurance Program participants
• Veterans’ programs participants
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants
• Child tax credit recipients
• Housing assistance recipients
• Student financial aid recipients
• School lunch program participants

On the same day as the offered debt ceiling deal, President Biden met with business leaders at the White House. The video above shows clips from the meeting, which included the heads of banks like Citi, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.