Mitch McConnell moves to cut deal on debt ceiling but faces GOP resistance

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is quietly moving to concoct a plan that would allow the nation's borrowing limit to be raised and force Democrats to ultimately cast the decisive and politically toxic vote — but he'll first have to sell it to Republicans.

To accomplish his plan, Republicans will first need to cooperate under the rules of the Senate. And it's unclear if the necessary 10 GOP senators will do just that.

McConnell, who has in the past developed creative ways to avoid a debt default without having Republicans cast the key vote, has been quietly working for weeks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the December 15 deadline set by the Treasury Department. His positioning amounts to a sharp shift from the last debt ceiling standoff earlier this fall when he initially refused to provide any GOP votes before cutting a deal to raise the debt ceiling for two months — and later pointedly told President Joe Biden there wouldn't be GOP cooperation again.