Reid refuses to back Gang plan, open to using parts

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he is open to including elements of the Gang of Six deficit-reduction plan in a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, but declined to say he supports it as drafted.

Reid said he asked Gang member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to come back to him within 24 hours on elements that he thinks could be included in a fallback bill to raise the debt ceiling.

“If there is a way in the next few days to improve upon the legislation that we are talking about doing, I am happy to take elements of the Gang of Six and work with me to get that done,” Reid said.

Reid is working on a fallback debt-ceiling bill with the GOP that could allow President Obama to raise the debt ceiling three times unless Congress objects. The bill might also include spending cuts, and Democratic staffers have floated creating another debt commission.

Reid said it does not matter whether he personally supports the Gang plan, because there is probably too little time before the debt ceiling needs to be increased on Aug. 2. 

He also noted that because the Gang plan raises revenue, it would have to start in the House under the Constitution.

“I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the enthusiasm for the Gang of Six, but I am the one who runs the Senate and I understand what the rules of the Senate are,” he said. “Remember, we have only 13 days.”

Reid praised the Gang plan for including revenues and cutting defense but said he cannot say he supports it, given his responsibility to run the Senate.

“For me to say I love this bill that other people have worked on for months and months,  I can’t do that,” he said.

He noted he has been told that it takes two weeks alone for the Congressional Budget Office to score mandatory spending cuts he wants to put in the fallback plan.

Reid said it would be a “stretch” to say President Obama has “embraced” the Gang of Six plan. “He had a conversation with one of the members of the Gang of Six; he is very interested in what it does, but the president knows, as I have explained to him many different times, the problems we have with time around here.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he just learned of the Gang details Tuesday and is still undecided on whether to support it. "We'll be looking at that as we move forward," he said.

McConnell, who is negotiating the fallback with Reid, would not say whether it can be part of a debt-ceiling increase.

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