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Republicans Taking a Beating

Republicans taking biggest hit in ABC/W. Post poll: "Seventy percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll disapprove of how the Republicans in Congress are handling the budget negotiations, up 7 percentage points from a week ago ... their disapproval ratings for handling the situation have increased numerically across the partisan board, among Republicans (+7 points), independents (+5) and Democrats (+9) alike. The Democrats, by contrast, receive an additional 9 points of disapproval among Republicans compared with last week, but with essentially no change among independents or Democrats."

House GOP "centrists" won't sign Dem discharge petition. The Hill: "The Hill on Monday contacted the more than two dozen House Republicans who publicly favor, or who have said they would consider voting for, a clean bill. Not one said they would join forces with the Democrats."

Senate Dems Move To Pay Debts

Senate moves to pay bills without conditions. NYT: "The first vote on raising the debt ceiling, by an amount large enough to get the government through the 2014 elections, could come as early as Friday ... At least two Democratic senators from Republican-leaning states, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, have said they will not vote to increase the debt ceiling without accompanying deficit reduction legislation. But Senate leadership aides expressed confidence that they would have near-unanimity in the vote. Whether it passes will be up to at least six Republicans who will likely have to break a Republican filibuster. Depending on hurdles put up by hard-line conservatives, a final vote might not come until next Tuesday, two days before the Treasury estimates it will breach the debt limit."

Will enough Republicans break the filibuster? Politico: "Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were the only two members of the 46-member GOP caucus to say Monday evening they support advancing a bill to increase the debt ceiling ... Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) ... did not rule out supporting an increase ... Asked if he would vote to break a filibuster on a debt ceiling hike, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said: 'Why not?' But then he added he’d wait to make a decision when he can 'see what the dynamics were' in the debate ... Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said: 'I’m not going to be offering hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions… when I see one I’ll decide.' Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) ... seemed unlikely to back an effort to cut off debate on a clean debt ceiling increase. But he cautioned: 'Please don’t put me in a category yet.'"

Will a "sidecar" solve the debt limit impasse? Roll Call: "The White House opened the door to signing a short-term debt limit hike Monday — and didn’t immediately dismiss the idea of allowing legislative sidecars provided they aren’t a 'concession' to the GOP ... An acceptable sidecar to the White House is something on the order of the largely toothless 'No Budget, No Pay' legislation that accompanied the debt ceiling hike earlier this year and came with a guarantee from Senate Democrats that they would pass a budget resolution for the first time since 2009 ... Boehner, at this point, continues to demand 'cuts and reforms' in return for a debt limit hike, and he’s charged that the president risks default by refusing to talk."

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham proposes multinational corporate tax repatriation as debt limit concession. Roll Call: "Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., believes Congress should consider repatriating money from overseas assets to fund transportation and infrastructure projects as part of a potential deal to increase the debt limit ... A repatriation holiday that would give corporations a break on the 35 percent corporate tax rate if they bring their profits home has been kicking around for years, backed by Wall Street and big multinational companies who have billions at stake. The government would get an upfront infusion of cash as the money is brought home despite a reduced tax rate."

Drop dead deadline may actually be Oct. 31. The Hill: "Washington and Wall Street increasingly see Oct. 31 as the drop-dead date for raising the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling ... Experts say the government could easily run out of funds before the end of the month, and that it’s basically impossible to nail down a specific drop-dead date, since Treasury is accepting and sending out millions of payments on any given day."

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