Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Republicans are willing to agree to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit high enough to avert a debt default crisis for two months, a short-term extension Democrats appeared ready to accept on Wednesday.
The offer represented the first flinch in a game of chicken that threatened to result in the U.S. failing to pay its debt sometime this month, with potentially catastrophic effects on the global economy. A vote on the short-term extension could come as early as Wednesday or Thursday, pending a final agreement between Senate leaders.
