McDermott to vote against debt-ceiling deal

House and Senate leaders prepared for possible votes Monday on the tentative deal to raise the government's debt ceiling and prevent a U.S. default.

Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the votes could come as early as Monday evening, depending on the outcome of meetings with members. Cantor's office said the House would go first.

The agreement, reached late Sunday night after a tense weekend of bargaining, gained momentum in the Senate after months of partisan rancor. A member of the Republican leadership predicted it would win at least 30 GOP votes.

Maybe 35 will support it in the end. There will be some who will pull back," Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the deputy Republican whip, told reporters.

Reid opened the day's session by declaring the deal shows that the often-dysfunctional Senate can come together when it counts. "People on the right are upset, people on the left are upset, people in the middle are upset," he said. "It was a compromise."

Vice President Joe Biden, who played an instrumental role in the weekend efforts to hammer out an accord, also was on Capitol Hill to sell the plan to Senate Democrats.

But while Senate passage seemed likely, if not wholly assured, the House was far from a lock. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will have to win over at least some of the tea party-backed conservatives who have so far adamantly resisted anything resembling compromise.

"We'll know over the next two to three hours," freshman Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) said when asked if Boehner had the votes in the House.

President Obama sent a video to Congress aimed at selling Democrats on the debt-ceiling agreement. "This has been a long and messy process," he said. "As with any compromise, the outcome is far from satisfying.

Jim McDermott plans to vote against the debt-ceiling deal brokered by President Obama and congressional leaders, making the Seattle Democrat the first member of the state's delegation to break ranks with his party on the issue that has consumed Congress for weeks.

McDermott's vote could come as early as this evening, when the House is expected to take up the debt deal after its anticipated approval by the Senate. Republican and Democratic whips in the House are still tallying whether they have the votes for passage, essential for averting a federal government default on Tuesday.

Kinsey Kiriakos, McDermott's spokesman, did not immediately provide a reason for his planned no vote. I expect to speak to McDermott shortly.

The debt-ceiling crisis has been exceptionally tortuous, with votes delayed twice, rejected twice (including a preemptive House vote against the Senate plan) and weeks of near-paralysis on Capitol Hill.

Through it all, members of Washington's congressional delegation stuck to partisan solidarity. All five Democratic representatives and two senators voted against the Republican plan that would have required Congress to amend the Constitution to mandate a balanced budget as a price for longer-term increases to the federal borrowing limits. All four Republican House members from Washington voted in favor.

The last-minute compromise hammered out by President Obama and Republican leaders raises the debt ceiling until after the 2012 elections. But it would cut spending by $2.1 trillion over a decade without calling for any new taxes or revenue -- a major concession for Obama, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and other Democrats who insisted all along that any deal include "shared sacrifices" by all Americans.