Congress paused business Thursday to pay tribute to former Sen. Robert Dole who died Sunday. Following that, the Senate will take up a procedural vote to advance the debt ceiling deal Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell worked out. The House’s other business is scheduled for Thursday, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has cancelled a Friday session for Dole’s services.

But let’s get back to the Senate, where the debt ceiling deal plays out, because it is definitely worth examining. At roughly 12:30 p.m. ET, they will hold a cloture vote to allow the Senate to bring a bill allowing the debt ceiling to be raised—with a simple majority vote—to the floor just for debate. That vote will have a 60-vote margin, so 10 Republican senators have agreed to break the filibuster on a bill that provides a one-time exemption for the debt ceiling from the filibuster, but there aren’t 10 Republicans who would agree to breaking the filibuster to raise the debt ceiling. No, they had to get the House involved, get them to write a bill setting out this convoluted Senate procedure, all so Republicans could be one step removed from agreeing to pay the nation’s bills.

After the Senate passes the bill that breaks the filibuster to increase the debt limit, that bill has to go to President Biden for his signature. Once it’s law, the Senate can take that final, simple majority vote and send it to the House for it to give the nation a reprieve. That can happen fairly quickly, as the whole process guarantees a fast track without the usual mandatory 30 hours of supposed debate time.

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            Thursday, Dec 9, 2021 ·  8:45:42 PM +00:00

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      Joan McCarter
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    The procedural bill allowing the Senate to take a simple majority vote to raise the debt ceiling <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1469010113679745035">passed with 14</a> Republican votes. What Elizabeth Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1469036925625450496">said</a>: “Let's be clear what this is: an exception to the filibuster. Today's vote is proof that it's possible to create exceptions to the filibuster and move forward when it's important. We did it this time, let's do it again.”

As Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren says, “This is an exception to the filibuster. And the Republicans have just signed on. It’s proof that it’s possible to create exceptions to the filibuster and move forward when it’s important.”

Important to McConnell means making the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street happy, and they’ve been rightly freaked out about the potential of a default because of previous Republican brinksmanship. Important for McConnell is not restoring the Voting Rights Act and restoring democracy. But nonetheless, Warren is right: “Do it once, let’s do it twice.”

McConnell, of course, isn’t admitting that this is breaking the filibuster, nor is he admitting that this is about paying the bills the former guy racked up. “The red line is intact. The red line is that you have a simple majority, party-line vote on the debt ceiling. That’s exactly where we will end up,” he said on Tuesday. “I think this is in the best interest of the country by avoiding default. I think it is also in the best interest of Republicans,” McConnell said. “I believe we’ve reached here a solution to the debt ceiling issue that’s consistent with Republican views of raising the debt ceiling for this amount at this particular time and allows the Democrats to proudly own it, which they are happy to do.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has given Congress a deadline of Dec. 15 to lift the debt ceiling and avert financial disaster. But this agreement should give the House plenty of time to get the Senate bill back and pass it before next Wednesday.

In addition to raising the debt ceiling, the bill prevents automatic cuts to Medicare reimbursements that would kick in at the end of the year. That’s a hangover from the Budget Control Act from a decade ago, when Republicans were refusing to lift the debt ceiling or fund the government under President Barack Obama, and they came up with this idea to supposedly make everyone play nice with each other and enforce austerity.

The Senate is going to work on other things following that cloture vote on not having a cloture vote to raise the debt ceiling, including some nominations and setting up the process for passing the National Defense Authorization Act next week.