So all we have to do is wait and see if Eric Cantor, the de facto House Speaker, likes it? Good luck with that:
An emerging deal to reopen the government and raise the nation's debt ceiling until February gathered political momentum Monday evening after Senate Republicans signaled they would likely support it.
Lawmakers and aides said the legislation would fund the government until Jan. 15 and extend the nation’s borrowing authority until February but leave ObamaCare largely untouched.
One senior Senate aide said it would raise the debt ceiling until Feb. 7 while another said Feb. 15 remains a possibility.
It would also establish a Senate-House budget committee to craft a replacement for the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, which would have to report its work product to Congress by Dec. 13.
Senate Republicans, who have seen their party’s approval rating plummet during two weeks of a government shutdown, are eager to accept a deal as long as it keeps spending levels consistent with the 2011 Budget Control Act in place.
“Most everybody that’s on our side of the aisle in the United States Senate feels the $987 [billion spending level] is the thing that can’t be moved,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in reference to prolonging current spending levels.
The big question is whether a package to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling can pass muster in the House.
