The proposal is wrapped in legislation that would delay planned cuts to Medicare, agricultural aid and other mandatory spending programs that were due to start next year. Once that bill becomes law, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, would introduce separate legislation to raise the debt limit. That is expected to pass with only Democratic votes in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris is empowered to cut ties.
“Democrats always said we were willing to take the burden with 50 votes to get this done, as long as it wasn’t a complicated or risky process,” said Mr. Schumer. “Leader McConnell and I achieved that.”
McConnell and 10 Republicans agreed in October to allow the Senate to pass a short-term increase in the debt limit, which was eventually passed by Democratic vote. But some of those senators — including Mr. McConnell, in a damning letter to Mr. Biden — warned they would not resign.
But in November, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer began quietly discussing alternatives.
“I am confident that this particular procedure, coupled with avoiding Medicare cuts, will garner enough Republican support to pass the 60-vote threshold,” McConnell said, predicting the Senate would vote in favor of the bill Thursday. .
That would require 10 Republicans to join Democrats in promoting the measure, a prospect Mr McConnell discussed with members of his party over lunch Tuesday afternoon. Some Republicans doubted it, arguing that passing new legislation to allow for a rapid rise in the debt ceiling would set a new and troubling precedent.
West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she would have preferred to see members of her party agree to allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling by a majority vote. “But we have recalcitrant members who don’t,” she admitted, adding that she hadn’t decided how she would vote yet.
McConnell and his allies have tried to convince their Republican colleagues that the provisions that avert planned cuts to Medicare and other programs make the legislation worthwhile. But it wasn’t enough for the vast majority of their Republican colleagues in the House.