Norm Ornstein: “There is one area where Obama could and should be willing to negotiate with Republicans–to take the default option, the full faith and credit of the United States, off the table permanently. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell provided the vehicle to do this in the eleventh-hour resolution of the debt ceiling crisis in 2011. The ‘McConnell Rule,’ as it was called, allowed the president unilaterally to extend the debt limit, while also providing for a congressional resolution of disapproval. If both houses of Congress disapproved of the president’s action, the resolution would be sent to the president. He could veto it–but it would take two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override his veto.”

“Institutionalizing the McConnell Rule would be valuable enough that it should extract some real concessions from the president to achieve it.”

House Republicans “will meet in a rare Saturday session as they plan their next move to keep the government open past midnight on Monday while extracting major concessions on President Obama’s health care law,” the New York Times reports.

“Any move short of passing the Senate bill is likely to shut down the government, at least briefly, unless it is accompanied by a measure that would finance the government for at least a few days. That would allow the Republican to keep their struggle alive.”

Wall Street Journal: “House leaders face a difficult situation. Mr. Boehner doesn’t want to alienate the dozens of lawmakers who won’t back any spending plan that doesn’t in some way limit the reach of the health law. At the same time, Senate Democrats say they will reject any measure that alters the health law.”

Washington Post: “Boehner’s leadership team offered no public comment and remained out of sight most of Friday, hunkering down for another weekend on the brink.”

Politico: “House and Senate leadership aides in both parties are increasingly convinced the federal government will close for the first time in more than 17 years on Tuesday morning.”

“Imagine if you had a Republican president and a Democratic speaker, and
the Democratic speaker said, well, we’re not going to pass the debt
ceiling unless we raise corporate taxes by 40% or unless we pass
background checks on guns or whatever other list of agenda items
Democrats were interested in. Does anybody actually think that we would
be hearing from Republicans that that was acceptable behavior?”

— President Obama, quoted by the Washington Post.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the Senate “is done acting on legislation to avert a government shutdown, and that House Republicans have no choice but to pass the Senate’s bill if it wants to keep the government open,” The Hill reports.

Said Reid: “I want everyone to listen and to hear: the United States Senate has acted. This is the only legislation that can avert a government shutdown, and that time is ticking as we speak.”

He added: “If Speaker Boehner wants to avoid a government shutdown, he will pass our resolution. Otherwise, it’s a government shutdown.”

The Senate voted “to end debate on a short-term spending measure in an effort to send it back to the House, with just four days to go before a threatened federal government shutdown,” the Washington Post reports.

“The fate of the bill remained in limbo in the House as the Republican Party’s rebellious right wing is blocking a strategy by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) for navigating a series of deadlines to keep the government funded and avoid the nation’s first default.”

Wall Street Journal: “Republican leaders in the House have already said they won’t pass the version that the Senate approves, setting up a weekend of legislative volleying between the Democratic-controlled Senate and GOP-led House.”

National Journal has the Senate roll call.

Jonathan Chait: “Obama can’t tame the monster he created gradually; he has to kill it completely. Bargaining his way through this crisis would do Obama no good, even if he could get through it by offering up a meager or even symbolic concession. Anything that allows Republicans to believe they can trade a debt-ceiling threat for policy concessions simply creates a new hostage crisis the next time the debt ceiling comes up. This negotiation is Obama’s only chance to halt the routinization of debt-ceiling extortion…”

“The stakes are higher than resisting the specific demands Republicans are making, and higher even than the economic havoc of a debt breach. Obama is fighting to save his presidency.”

Wonk Wire: Breaching the debt ceiling would be catastrophic