With the standoff only intensifying, Biden on Tuesday for the second time this week lambasted Republicans. “There’s not many options if they’re going to be that irresponsible. … There’s not much time left to do it by reconciliation,” he told reporters.

If the process bogs down because of a filibuster, lawmakers would have even less time. Asked about loosening the rules specifically to address the debt ceiling, Biden replied: “I think that’s a real possibility.”

For Biden, the suggestion itself amounts to a significant political development. The president has been reticent to call for a full repeal of the power available to the minority party, even as Democrats newly in charge of the House and Senate fail to advance long-sought police, election and gun reforms, partly in response to sustained GOP opposition.

Instead, Biden has called for a return to the “talking filibuster,” which requires protesting senators to command the floor for as long as they wanted to hold up debate. Otherwise, he said in July, the elimination of the rule entirely could “throw the Senate into chaos.”