McConnell: Debt ceiling will not get ‘a single Republican vote’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that his party is united in opposing any effort to raise the debt ceiling, even as he maintained that the country will not default on its debt obligations.

“I bet there won’t be a single Republican vote to raise the debt ceiling at the end of the day,” the Senate’s top Republican said in a radio interview Wednesday morning with conservative commentator Laura Ingraham.

McConnell’s remarks come one day after the Kentucky Republican sketched out a “back-up plan” that would shift the political burden of raising the debt ceiling to President Obama and congressional Democrats, allowing for the borrowing limit to be raised without any Republican votes.

McConnell’s “Plan B” would first need to be approved by both chambers and signed into law by Obama in order to take effect – a prospect that was uncertain at best Tuesday evening, as some lawmakers of both parties balked at the idea.

Congress faces an Aug. 2 deadline by which to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit, or else the country will default, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said.

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