Senate Republicans appear to be close to coalescing behind a position to require a balanced budget amendment to be submitted to the states as a prerequisite to passing an increase in the debt ceiling. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who sponsored the last effort in the late 1990's thinks all forty seven Republicans will support it.
But back then, there were 54 Republicans in the chamber and eleven Democrats supported it, causing the amendment to fail two votes short. Of those eleven Democrats, only four remain.
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