In a blog earlier today, we endorsed a very short-term debt ceiling increase if it allowed time for the Gang of Six plan to be passed. We floated this basic model a while back when we said that lawmakers should avoid any long-term debt limit increases without concrete steps on controlling our debt.

Gang of Six Unveils Plan – The bipartisan Gang of Six senators that had been left for dead when one of its members left the group earlier this year quickly sprang back to life on Tuesday when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) rejoined the group and it unveiled its long-awaited plan to colleagues.

Despite broad enthusiasm for the Gang of Six proposal released yesterday, some have argued that there isn't enough time to put it into law. Senator Majority leader Harry Reid said, for example:

Update 7/15: S&P has joined Moody's in issuing new warnings to the United States. Putting the country on "negative watch," S&P warned that it could downgrade U.S. debt before the August 2nd deadline.

The budget and debt-limit negotiations are approaching the 11th hour. Congressional leaders and the President continue negotiating over a deficit-reduction package, the size of which is still up in the air. Estimates have ranged from a “small package” of somewhere between $1 and $2 trillion to a larger deal of about $4 trillion, both over ten years. Some details of the discussions can be surmised from a presentation that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) gave to his caucus on 7/12.

Yesterday, nearly five hundred business leaders and organizations sent a letter to the President and members of Congress joining the chorus of other concerned groups and citizens (including CRFB!

Clutch Goals -- The U.S. Women’s Soccer team scored an improbable victory over Brazil on Sunday in the Women’s World Cup, overcoming a scoring and manpower deficit with a last-minute goal and sealing the victory through penalty kicks. A similar storyline is playing out in Washington involving a different deficit -- the federal budget deficit. It looks as if negotiations to raise the statutory debt limit and reduce the deficit will also come down to the wire.

CRFB has been calling pretty much continuously for a debt reduction package which puts everything on the table, addresses entitlement spending growth, and achieves a minimum of $4 trillion in savings over the next decade.

While much of the conversation on tax increases in a debt ceiling budget deal has seemed to focus on corporate jet owners, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has offered up a broader range of tax increases to reduce future deficits.

At a press briefing yesterday, President Obama invited Congressional leaders of both parties to the White House tomorrow to continue ongoing debt ceiling negotiations. As the August 2nd deadline for raising the limit draws nearer, the President also stressed the need for lawmakers to be open to compromise, saying he hoped "that everybody is going to leave their ultimatums at the door."