Durbin to vote for debt-ceiling compromise with a ‘heavy heart’

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday said he would vote for the debt-ceiling compromise reached between congressional leaders and the White House with a “heavy heart.”

“At the end of the day I will vote for this measure, but obviously with a heavy heart,” said Durbin. “There are parts of it I will struggle to explain and defend, but I can’t let this American economy descend into chaos if we fail to extend the debt ceiling.”

Durbin said he hoped that future efforts to reduce the deficit would include revenue raisers as well as cuts.

“The job ahead will he hard, but let us hope that we will, in reducing the deficit, further do it in a balanced and fair way with everything on the table,” said Durbin.

The deal, reached Sunday by Obama and congressional leaders, would cut nearly $1 trillion in planned spending over 10 years and create a bicameral committee tasked with finding another $1.5 trillion in cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion over the next few months, then by another $1.5 trillion early next year.

The Senate is set to vote on that plan at noon on Monday.