With backroom debt talks resuming, Reid sends senators home for weekend

WASHINGTON -- After killing a Republican debt plan and as negotiations readjourned to the back rooms, Senate leader Harry Reid this morning sent senators home for the weekend.

Earlier this week, Reid said the Senate would remain in session every day, and he chided House leaders who declined to do the same.

But after the Senate voted 51-46 to kill a GOP plan for spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment, the Nevada Democrat said there was nothing more the Senate could do until the House takes further action.

A path forward on legislation to increase the government's borrowing powers and avert a default crisis was further complicated by a possible new debt-and-spending deal being discussed by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Reid said he would no longer hold the Senate in session "based on these changed circumstances, and they change rapidly."

"Over the weekend there, of course, will be all kinds of meetings going on," Reid said, moments before he was to duck into one involving a bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators who have promoted their own solution to the looming debt crisis.

Democrats reacted with fury on Thursday to reports the possible Obama-Boehner agreement would save about $3 trillion over 10 years through spending cuts and changes to Social Security and Medicare, but no short-term revenue raisers or tax increases.

Besides being unhappy with the outlines, Democrats fumed at being left out of the loop.

The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper and website, reported that Reid confronted White House budget director Jack Lew in a meeting on Thursday, saying "I'm the Senate majority leader -- why don't I know about this deal?" The paper said the exchange was confirmed by a Senate Democratic aide, but it could not be immediately confirmed independently.

Frankly... a lot of what is going on, we don't know," Reid said this morning of himself and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "Speaking for myself, I have not been in the day to day negotiations as to what is going on" between Obama and House Republicans.

After declaring on Thursday that Senate Democrats would not support a debt plan that does not include new revenues, Reid this morning said he has been told that any deal will include revenue components.

"I wish them well," Reid said of Boehner and the White House negotiators. "It is extremely important we address the debt. I hope this weekend bring good sense and common sense and vitality in the work being done."

Minutes earlier, the Senate voted 51-46 to kill a Republican proposal that would have tied an increase in the government's borrowing power to a constitutional amendment calling for a balanced budget.

Reid had set a Saturday vote on the measure but moved it up to this morning, declaring he did not want to waste time on bills that have no chance of passing with time growing short in front of an Aug. 2 deadline by which the Treasury Department said it will run out of money to pay bills.

Reid called the so-called "cut, cap and balance" plan "one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever be placed on the floor of the United States Senate."

Fifteen or so House Republicans, most of them with Tea Party ties, came onto the Senate floor to witness the vote. Reid shook hands and circulated among them for a few minutes as Senate Democrats proceeded to kill their measure.

While Reid voted to kill the bill, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted for it.

Heller said the vote showed the Democratic party "is not serious about addressing our nation's debt. Most Americans agree that Congress needs to balance the federal budget."