Yesterday Minority Leader McConnell was briefed by media saying he will offer Democrats several ways to avoid a default on U.S. debt in the coming days. Each of these options, however, involves palpable sacrifices for his political opponents and is intended to make them raise the debt ceiling to a fixed number, rather than a suspending a limit until a certain point in the future. that could spare Washington a calamitous default.

Democrats quickly dismissed the GOP leader's offer, demanding that Republicans drop their blockade.

In his statement, McConnell said his party's options "will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation."