Dec. 8, 2021: ‘The least bad deal’

The idea started out promising, at least from the GOP’s perspective. Over the summer, Mitch McConnell surprised much of Washington when he drew a bright line on the debt ceiling, demanding Democrats use reconciliation to raise the borrowing cap on their own. The idea was to force President Joe Biden's party to vote to increase the $29 trillion debt by a specific number — then hammer them for out-of-control spending on the camping trail. Republicans cheered. But while McConnell struck a deal with Chuck Schumer on Tuesday that will ultimately achieve the same result, his method of getting there has left many of his own rank-and-file members unhappy. Instead of gumming up the works by forcing Democrats to use reconciliation, he agreed to a convoluted strategy that enables Democrats to bypass the filibuster. It goes like this: At least 10 Republicans will have to join Democrats as early as Thursday in approving new legislation allowing Schumer’s party to temporarily raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority vote. Maybe they’ll get more GOP backing; but maybe not. Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook. Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.