“Lawmakers Sunday fretted that the deal being hatched between leaders in Washington ought not be kept under wraps until the last minute.

“‘I’m really worried about it—and we’re not going to rubber stamp something sent down from the White House,’ Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) said on Fox News Sunday. Mr. Sessions, top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said lawmakers should have at least seven days to review the final deal.

“Mr. Cornyn echoed his colleague’s sentiment: ‘What I’m concerned about is that…we’re running up against this deadline and they’re going try to present it as a fait accompli,’ he said. ‘Nobody is going to have time to read it or consider the implications of it.'”

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“Two senior Republicans said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue as part of a deal to resolve the dispute over the federal debt ceiling, but they warned that there was little time to enact a comprehensive deal…

“Mr. Cornyn, a member of the Senate leadership, also said that Republicans would be open to a short-term deal on the debt ceiling to provide more time for a comprehensive agreement.

“‘The problem with a minideal is we have a maxi-problem,’ he said. ‘And the big problems aren’t going to go away if you cut a minideal. All it does is delay the moment of truth. And so I’d say better now than then. But if we can’t, then we’ll take the savings we can get now, and we will relitigate this as we get closer to the election.’

“The White House had no comment on the senators’ remarks.”

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“Tea Party-backed lawmakers are pushing McConnell to insist on passage of a balanced budget amendment in exchange for allowing an increase in the debt limit.

“McConnell has resisted, however. He argues that a balanced budget amendment, which requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers, simply doesn’t have enough votes to pass the upper chamber. But this has put him out of step with some of the hard-charging conservative freshmen in the upper chamber…

“Lawmakers who vow to oppose the debt-limit increase in the absence of a balanced budget amendment passing are bluntly telling McConnell that he’ll have fewer votes to count on for any deal he negotiates with the president, the source said. The senator added the chances of garnering the requisite two-thirds vote in the upper chamber for the amendment are very slim.

“Insistence on passage of a balanced budget amendment makes it virtually impossible for McConnell to satisfy conservatives, the lawmaker said.”

***
“Clinton did not know how Obama could avoid a repeat shutdown, but insisted that the president stand his ground. ‘First, the White House could blink,’ Clinton said. ‘I hope that won’t happen. I don’t think they should blink.’…

“An economic recovery will require both a healthy private sector and an effective government, Clinton said.

“To prove that point, President Barack Obama and the Democrats should immediately accept previously agreed-upon spending cuts with Republicans that would allow the government to continue to run for another six to eight months. Then both parties must work together toward serious budget reform, which cannot possibly happen by August 2, he added.”

***
“‘We’ve had not one minute of debate about the debt ceiling in any committee,’ he said in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” that aired on Sunday. ‘We haven’t had a budget in two years. We haven’t had an appropriations bill in two years. So I’m part of the freshmen group in the Senate that’s saying, ‘no more.”

“Paul’s plan: ‘Next week, we will filibuster until we talk about the debt ceiling, until we talk about proposals.’…

“‘[W]e will actually vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling next week if we can, but it will be contingent on passing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution,’ he said, adding, ‘I’m not completely without the sense that we may need to raise the debt ceiling. But I will only do it if we have significant budgetary reform, and to me that means you have to balance your budget every year.'”