“Even if U.S. Senate leaders reach a deal today to extend the debt limit, there’s no guarantee that a final vote would take place before the government’s borrowing authority ends tomorrow. Any senator who wants to slow down action on an accord has the ability to insist that the Senate follow rules that would add days to the process of approving it,” Bloomberg reports.

“It’s possible that the delay scenario would be avoided if the House sent to the Senate a rewritten version of H.J. Res. 59, a bill initially designed to keep the government running after Sept. 30 and defund the 2010 health-care law… Recycling the number means that the measure would be treated in the Senate as though it’s a tweak instead of a whole new piece of legislation. In that case, Senate rules provide fewer opportunities to filibuster, or stall action on a bill.”

Politico: “Wall Street has so far mostly shrugged off the latest Washington political crisis, assuming an 11th hour deal will materialize to raise the debt limit and stave off a potentially ruinous default. But if the final act, which starts Wednesday, does not quickly produce the expected ending, the markets’ vengeance could be swift and severe.”

New York Times: “It was yet another moment of decision for Mr. Boehner, who finally finds himself at the crossroads he has been marching toward for weeks: an imminent financial default on the one hand, and on the other an unyielding conservative rank and file that persists with the futile effort to take down President Obama’s health care law even if they also take down the speaker in the process.”

“While his colleagues sang about how what once was lost had now been found, Mr. Boehner did not tell them a more dispiriting truth: With less than 48 hours left before the nation is set to exhaust its authority to borrow money, he and his lieutenants were running out of ideas — a fact made starkly evident by the mad and fruitless scramble on Tuesday to come up with a measure that could win enough support from his members. Around 7 p.m., he sent the House home and canceled all votes for the day.”

Said Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): “He’s herding cats.”

Byron York: “Senate Republicans knew the House GOP conference was divided, and they
knew Boehner’s hold on his conference was shaky, but they were still
stunned by the GOP’s utter failure to accomplish anything.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told TPM that he was “proud” of Speaker John Boehner’s handling of the fiscal crisis but thought Democrats should have been more flexible with Republicans.

Said Graham: “We won’t be the last political party to overplay our hand. It might happen one day on the Democratic side. And if it did, would Republicans, for the good of the country, kinda give a little? We really did go too far. We screwed up. But their response is making things worse, not better.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “are finalizing a deal to avert a debt default and reopen the government, capping a frantic day that had Washington bracing for an economic crisis of its own making,” Politico reports.

“The deal is essentially done, sources say, as aides for the two leaders finish drafting the legislative language Tuesday night.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said it was time to end what had emerged as a politically disastrous episode for Republicans: “The only reason why the Democrats don’t look terrible is we look even worse.”

“It’s all over. We’ll take the Senate deal.”

— A senior GOP aide, quoted by National Review, noting that the Senate bill to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the federal government will now get a vote in the House.

Robert Costa: “My sources tell me House Republicans will likely postpone tonight’s vote on their plan to end the fiscal impasse… This development leaves Speaker John Boehner with few options as Thursday’s debt-ceiling deadline nears, and it throws the action back toward the Senate, which has been working on a bipartisan package.”

Said a House leadership aide: “The votes aren’t there. We’ve been amending the bill all day, but we’ve been unable to get people around this strategy.”

Politico: “House Republicans are in trouble.”

Fitch Ratings put the U.S. government’s “AAA” credit rating on “rating watch negative” saying that the standstill on the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations risks undermining the effectiveness of the country’s government and political institutions, CNBC reports.

Wall Street Journal: “Fitch isn’t commenting beyond its statement, but this could suggest a
downgrade is possible even if Congress manages to avert an actual
default.”

“The day after a group of rebellious House Republicans met with Sen. Ted Cruz in the basement of a Capitol Hill restaurant, lawmakers were cagey about what exactly they discussed,” Roll Call reports.

Robert Costa: “House insiders say Boehner’s fear is that conservative activists and powerful conservative groups start to align against the bill and rattle its fragile coalition. If that happens, and the bill’s support falls apart, a simple, six-week debt-ceiling extension is still in the leadership’s back pocket, but there’s no plan to bring that up anytime soon. More likely, should things fizzle on the whip front, is that another conference meeting is called and the House GOP ‘gets real,’ as one Boehner ally puts it, about ‘what’s possible within divided government, and whether Republicans are willing to back anything at all.'”

“Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have slowed down their talks with Democrats as they wait to see if Boehner can pass his plan. Privately, they’re worried that if Boehner struggles to find support for his amped-up version of the emerging Senate deal, it’ll give even more leverage to Senate majority leader Harry Reid.”

Said one Senate GOP aide: “If the House can’t get its act together, we’re going to get nothing, other than preserving sequestration. They’re playing games, and we’re over here, just trying to survive.”

“If our party can’t pass this, then there’s no doubt we’re going to end up with what the Senate sends us.”

— Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), quoted by the New York Times, on a bill extending the nation’s debt limit.

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) told TPM that “part of the House Republican calculus in its plan to re-open the government and raise the debt limit was trying to leverage the Thursday default deadline to their advantage in their back-and-forth with the Senate.”

Said Fleming: “We want to make a deal that they can’t refuse, and we’re running out of time. Timing is very important here. They’re going to be more motivated to take this up. Otherwise, they miss the Thursday deadline.”

Wonk Wire highlights that while lawmakers may manage to avoid breaching the debt ceiling, “by Treasury’s own definition, it’s reasonable to say that we have already defaulted.”

A new Pew Research survey finds Americans feel Republicans are more to blame for the deadlock over the government shutdown and debt limit by 46% to 37%.

A week ago, when the question asked just about responsibility for the government shutdown, the public said Republicans were more to blame, by 38% to 30%.