“We’re trying to find a way through it,” said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, emerging from Mr. Boehner’s office to announce that no votes would be held Tuesday night. 
 
 The House setback returned the focus to the Senate, where the leadership had suspended talks after the Senate Republican leadership opted to give the House a chance to produce an alternative to the Senate measure taking shape. 
 
 Under the emerging Senate deal, the government would be funded through Jan. 15 and the debt limit extended until Feb. 7. House and Senate negotiators would be required to reach accord on a detailed tax-and-spending blueprint for the next decade by Dec. 13. A proposal to delay the imposition of a tax on medical devices had been dropped from the deal, as had a complicated tax on self-insured unions and businesses participating in the health care exchanges. All that remained for Republicans was language tightening income verification for people seeking subsidies on the insurance exchanges, but that language was still being negotiated. 
 
 It remained unclear if the Senate plan could pass the House or even if Mr. Boehner would bring it forward for a vote. The hopes for a resolution by Thursday also appeared to rest with the senators who had begun the failed movement to tie any further government funding to the gutting of the Affordable Care Act: Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah. 
 
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 If Mr. Reid and Mr. McConnell reach a final accord, Senate leaders expect to use a parliamentary maneuver that will allow the majority leader to quickly move the deal to the Senate floor on Wednesday. With unanimous consent, a final vote would come the same day. But if Senate hard-liners object, the Senate would have to wait until Friday, then muster 60 votes to cut off debate. Further obstruction would mean the final vote would happen Saturday, when the bill would go back to the House, where it would pass only if it had overwhelming Democratic support since many Republicans would not vote for it. 
 
 Given the progress that had been made in the Senate, Congressional Democrats and officials at the White House criticized Mr. Boehner’s move on Tuesday as an attempt to sabotage the bipartisan Senate talks even as they seemed to be nearing an agreement. 
 
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 Initially, Mr. Boehner proposed a bill to reopen the government until Jan. 15, extend the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, delay a tax on medical devices two years and deny members of Congress, the president, the vice president and White House political appointees taxpayer subsidies to help buy insurance on President Obama’s health insurance exchanges. 
 
 “We’re trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way that would continue to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare,” Mr. Boehner said as he acknowledged “there are a lot of opinions” among his rambunctious members. 
 
 By Tuesday afternoon, House Republican leaders were back with a new proposal to fund the government through Dec. 15, extend the debt ceiling into February and deprive not only lawmakers but all their staff members of employer assistance to buy their health care. By extending that provision to staff members, Republican leaders hoped to appeal to its far-right flank, but it angered more moderate Republicans and was not enough for the conservative hard core. 
 
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 Complicating the speaker’s task, Heritage Action, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s political arm, which wields great influence with the most conservative elements of the Republican Party, opposed the plan. 
 
 “I think there’s always hope there can be a final package I can vote on, but this is not the one,” said Representative Ted Yoho, Republican of Florida, as he and two other Tea Party conservatives left the speaker’s office. 
 
 Republican leaders had initially hoped the loss of members like Mr. Yoho could be made up with support from Democrats. But Democratic leaders made it clear they would offer no assistance. Democrats latched on to a provision in the House proposals that would have forbidden the Treasury to juggle government accounts — so-called extraordinary measures — to meet obligations beyond a debt-ceiling deadline. 
 
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 In the midst of the turmoil, the credit rating agency Fitch put the United States on a “negative ratings watch,” warning that Congressional intransigence has put the full faith and credit of the government at risk. 
 
 The news came as the Treasury Department said it had only about $35 billion in cash on hand. It expects to run out of “extraordinary measures” to keep on paying all of the government’s bills on Thursday, at which point outgoing payments might exceed that cash, plus any revenues, on any day going forward. 
 
 As the United States nears default, investors have demanded more compensation for lending to the government, with yields on short-term debt spiking to their highest levels in years. 
 
 Fitch warned that Congress has not “raised the federal debt ceiling in a timely manner.” It said that it “continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon,” but that “political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.” ||||| The fiscal impasse is showing no signs of ending. House pulls back on Boehner plan 
 
 Everyone is asking the same question: What’s next? 
 
 For the second time this fall, Speaker John Boehner has had to pull legislation to lift the debt ceiling because of concerns from conservative lawmakers that their leadership was heading down the wrong path. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 But this time, the economy could be on the brink of disaster. The United States runs out of borrowing authority on Thursday, and it does not appear at the moment that House Republicans are willing — or able — to lift the nation’s debt ceiling. 
 
 “We need to be prepared tomorrow to make some decisions,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas. 
 
 ( PHOTOS: Debt ceiling fight: 20 great quotes) 
 
 In practical terms, Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s inability to persuade 217 lawmakers to vote for their proposal means that the House could be sidelined in a fiscal fight they picked. Action could be rapidly kicked over to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 
 
 The fiscal impasse, which has dragged on in Washington since Oct. 1, is showing no signs of ending. 
 
 In fact, it’s about to get worse. The U.S. government is set to exhaust its borrowing authority on Thursday. Fitch Ratings put the United States AAA rating on a “negative watch,” meaning market watchers are nervous about the world’s largest economy meeting its fiscal obligations. Banks are already warning investors to get out of short-term U.S. debt, traditionally the safest investment vehicle in the world. And financial services firms are dumping hundreds of billions of dollars in Treasury bills. 
 
 ( Also on POLITICO: What Obama, Republicans get with a deal) 
 
 The bill that was pulled because of flagging support would have reopened the government until Dec. 15, lifted the debt ceiling until Feb. 7 and force everyone from the president to Capitol Hill staffers to pay more for their health insurance. 
 
 House Democrats said they would’ve voted nearly unanimously against this plan. That means Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy (R-Calif.) would’ve had to find 217 GOP votes to pass their bill on their own. 
 
 Conservatives immediately rebelled inside and outside the building. Outside conservative groups like FreedomWorks and Heritage Action for America urged lawmakers to vote against the bill, while their allies inside the building communicated to their leadership that they couldn’t stand with them this time around. 
 
 Even this legislation represented a drastic reversal for the House Republicans Conference, which once tried to force President Barack Obama and Democrats to agree to trillions of dollars in spending cuts as a price for raising the nation’s borrowing limit. This latest House GOP bill, offered just two days before a potentially catastrophic default by the U.S. government on its $16.7 trillion debt, contains virtually no spending cuts. 
 
 The Tuesday evening drama is ironic because Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy spent all day changing the bill to maximize Republican support in what amounted to a roller-coaster day, and another prime example of House Republicans not being able to settle on a plan. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, Republicans were going to move a bill that delayed for two years a tax on medical devices, forced the government to verify the income of those receiving Obamacare subsidies and cut health-insurance subsidies for lawmakers, their aides, the president, vice president and the Cabinet. That was quickly refashioned. 
 
 Republicans dropped the medical device tax repeal because conservatives thought it was a corporate giveaway and muddled the party’s message. Earlier Tuesday, a senior GOP aide was touting it as a common-sense change that the White House and Democratic Senate should accept. They have also dropped a provision that would’ve required the Department of Health and Human Services to verify the income of individuals who receive subsidies under Obamacare. 
 
 They changed the expiration of government funding to mid-December because they want to fight again on Obamacare before the individual mandate goes into effect Jan. 1. 
 
 The House and Senate bill ended up being studies in contrast. The Senate bill had income verification for Obamacare subsidies, created a budget negotiating committee and tentatively canceled a tax on insurance plans. The House ended up including none of those provisions. 
 
 House leadership had no choice but to sow this chaos. The opposition to the Senate’s bill was stiff. In the House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday, leadership put up a slide that read “Senate Jam.” At the beginning of the meeting, Republicans sang “Amazing Grace,” according to sources present. 
 
 Follow @politico ||||| House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday there were "a lot of opinions about what direction to go" on government shutdown negotiations after a meeting with House Republicans. (The Washington Post) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday there were "a lot of opinions about what direction to go" on government shutdown negotiations after a meeting with House Republicans. (The Washington Post) 
 
 A campaign to persuade House Republicans to lift the federal debt limit collapsed in humiliating failure Tuesday, leaving Washington careering toward a critical deadline just two days away, with no clear plan for avoiding a government default. 
 
 Senate leaders quickly moved to pick up the pieces, saying they were “optimistic” that they could reach agreement to advance an alternative proposal that would raise the debt limit through Feb. 7 and end a government shutdown, now in its third week. 
 
 But it was unclear whether a deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could pass the Senate before the Treasury Department exhausts its borrowing power Thursday. 
 
 Meeting that deadline would be impossible if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or other conservative hard-liners chose to throw up roadblocks, Democrats said. Republican leaders were leaning on Cruz and his allies to avoid unnecessary delays. 
 
 “The clock is ticking,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate. “Given the consequence of what we’re talking about here, . . . I would hope that we would have genuine interest among all parties in terms of trying to get this done as quickly as possible.” 
 
 View Graphic Finding common ground hasnt been easy for lawmakers during the Obama administration. 
 
 Any deal would also have to win approval in the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team had once again lost all control of their majority. After a long day of trying with increasing desperation to cobble together a debt-limit plan that could win the support of 217 Republicans, Boehner and his top deputies gave up and abruptly canceled a scheduled vote on the measure. 
 
 (Related: Who controls the House GOP? No one.) 
 
 On Tuesday evening, they left the Capitol without further plan or explanation. 
 
 “We are done for the night,” a weary Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said as he left a marathon session in Boehner’s office that began as an airing of complaints from rebellious conservatives and soon ballooned into a full-blown emergency session of senior lawmakers and committee chairmen. 
 
 The chaos on Capitol Hill was already reverberating through the financial world. U.S. financial markets closed down slightly Tuesday, while Fitch Ratings, the third-largest credit-rating agency, took a step toward a potential downgrade of the government’s AAA rating. Fitch warned that “political brinksmanship and reduced financing flexibility” were elevating the risk of default. 
 
 Unless Congress acts by Thursday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will be left with just $30 billion in cash and a fluctuating flow of incoming tax revenue to pay the nation’s bills. While Lew is unlikely to begin missing payments immediately, independent analysts say he would run short of funds no later than Nov. 1. 
 
 Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters that aides to the two Senate leaders would work through the night to finalize details of the emerging Senate measure. “They had a basic agreement,” Durbin said of Reid and McConnell. “All pointing in the right direction.” 
 
 McConnell spokesman Don Stewart added in a statement: “Given tonight’s events, the Leaders have decided to work toward a solution that would reopen the government and prevent default. They are optimistic an agreement can be reached.” 
 
 In addition to lifting the $16.7 trillion debt limit, the emerging measure would fund the government through Jan. 15, delaying the next threat of a shutdown until after the holidays. It would set up a conference committee to hammer out broader budget issues, such as whether to replace deep cuts to agency budgets known as the sequester with other savings. 
 
 Related: The Take: How many rounds will Washington go? 
 
 Republicans who shut down the government in a bid to undermine President Obama’s health-care program would win no major changes to the law. But they would get additional safeguards to ensure that people who receive subsidies to buy health insurance are in fact eligible. 
 
 Democrats dropped their demand to delay a new tax on existing health insurance plans, a change intended to benefit organized labor. And Republicans backed off their push to deny the Treasury Department flexibility to manage the nation’s books after Feb. 7, an aborted attempt to ensure that the short-term extension of the debt limit doesn’t somehow drag on into the spring. 
 
 Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat and chief vote counter, predicted that the final package would easily pass the Senate with support from both parties. 
 
 “With McConnell’s name on it,” he said, “we feel it will get a good, strong vote.” 
 
 Its fate in the House, however, was uncertain. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has pledged the support of all 200 Democrats, meaning Boehner would have to supply almost two dozen votes. 
 
 Late Tuesday, Democrats — and some Senate Republicans — were urging Boehner to draft the emerging Senate deal into legislation and let the House vote as soon as Wednesday. Given a House-passed bill, Reid could move much more quickly to final passage in the Senate, sending a bill to Obama’s desk before the Thursday deadline if Cruz and his allies did not object. 
 
 House GOP officials said they had yet to decide how to proceed. Passing the Senate bill before the Senate had even taken a vote would amount to a complete capitulation to the upper chamber, the latest embarrassment in a speakership riddled with dark moments. 
 
 Ironically, the current debacle began with Boehner’s friends in the Senate — recognizing that McConnell was close to a deal with Reid — deciding to pause those talks to give Boehner a chance to consolidate his weakening hold on power. 
 
 If Boehner had been able to rally support for a measure more palatable to Republicans, it would have strengthened McConnell’s hand. 
 
 Boehner “would establish himself as the leader of the House, which is good for the country,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters as he left the Senate GOP’s weekly luncheon Tuesday afternoon. “This is offense for us,” Graham said optimistically. “This is a defining moment for the speaker.” 
 
 Graham, Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and other GOP senators had pleaded with Boehner late last week to try to pass a bill that would give Senate Republicans leverage in their talks with Reid. On Monday, Boehner met with McConnell and several other Senate Republicans. And on Tuesday, Boehner was ready to go. 
 
 He started the day by convening a 9 a.m. meeting of his rank and file, a session that opened with a prayerful group sing-along to the hymn “Amazing Grace.” But as Boehner began searching for items to attach to the debt-limit bill, his majority quickly dis­integrated into squabbling ideological factions. 
 
 Boehner’s initial proposal was to include two provisions that would have given conservatives some small measure of satisfaction in exchange for ending the government shutdown and raising the debt limit. One would have delayed a tax on medical devices that helps finance the new health-care law. The other would have ended employer-provided health subsidies given to lawmakers and members of the executive branch, who are required to join the new health-care exchanges. 
 
 But conservatives quickly complained that it wasn’t enough. The bill would not cut spending, they said, or reform entitlement programs, or erase a clause in the health law that requires employers to provide coverage for contraception. And it clearly would not achieve their ultimate goal of ending the program they call Obamacare. 
 
 As the bickering continued, senior aides to rank-and-file Republicans resorted to watching the Twitter feeds of congressional reporters to learn who was demanding what. 
 
 By midafternoon, House leaders appeared to be rallying around a new measure. This one would not delay the medical-device tax, but it would add congressional staffers to the group of federal employees who would no longer receive any help from their employer to buy health insurance. 
 
 The proposal amounted to a $5,000 pay cut for those with individual coverage and a $10,000 cut for those with families. But conservatives theorized that Senate Democrats would have to approve it or risk looking as if they were protecting their own health benefits. And that would motivate them to reopen the health-care law, the theory went. 
 
 House leaders scheduled a vote for late Tuesday evening. 
 
 But in the end, that idea didn’t fly either. One by one, recalcitrant lawmakers were dragged to Boehner’s office. One by one, they emerged shaking their heads. 
 
 “I’ve got one vote and I’m a no,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the most conservative House members, told waiting reporters. 
 
 Mainstream conservatives were also unhappy. After shutting the government down for 15 days, they would get nothing — not even the meager concessions McConnell and Reid had been discussing. 
 
 The final blow came shortly after 5 p.m., when Heritage Action for America, the powerful conservative group that drove Republicans to attack Obama’s health-care initiative, sent an e-mail urging lawmakers to vote no because the House bill “will do nothing to stop Obamacare’s massive new entitlements from taking root.” 
 
 Soon after, Boehner canceled the vote. An hour later, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) issued an alert telling lawmakers that the House would be in session Wednesday. No specific legislation was listed for consideration. 
 
 As for the timing of any votes, Cantor advised: “TBD.” 
 
 Rosalind S. Helderman and Jackie Kucinich contributed to this report. ||||| House Democratic leaders on Tuesday were quick to reject the latest proposal from Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE (R-Ohio) to end the shutdown and prevent a government default, saying it's a futile effort that will only bring the country closer to economic catastrophe. 
 
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 Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, characterized the GOP plan as "irresponsible" and said Democratic leaders will urge their members to vote against it. 
 
 "They have an opportunity for a reasonable solution that's being discussed in the Senate, and it is another instance where they have rejected the responsible course that would lead to positive action," Hoyer said after a closed-door meeting of the Democratic Caucus in the Capitol. 
 
 
 
 Rep. Xavier Becerra Xavier BecerraDem added to Ways and Means Committee amid desire for more Hispanic members Judge blocks Trump contraception rule in 13 states Overnight Health Care: Judge pauses ObamaCare appeal amid shutdown | Trump officials consider Medicaid block grants for states | HHS closing tent city for migrant teens MORE (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, piled on, calling it a "reckless" strategy that will only prolong the current impasse. 
 
 "For the House Republicans to come out now and say they're going to do something contrary to what even their Senate Republican colleagues are discussing seems to be a reckless attempt to try to circumvent what the Senate is doing, which at this late hour … falls short of common sense," Becerra said. 
 
 Although Republican leaders have yet to release their bill, Hoyer later warned that Democrats will not accept legislation that delays ObamaCare's medical device tax and eliminates insurance subsidies for members of Congress. 
 
 
 
 He characterized the Republicans' plan as dead-on-arrival in the Senate and hammered GOP leaders for "putting the country at great risk by their inability to make reasonable decisions." 
 
 
 
 "This just delays the process," Hoyer said. "I don't think this is a bill that the Senate's going to take. We need to get the government open now." 
 
 
 
 Asked if any Democrats will support the plan, Hoyer said, "I hope not." 
 
 The Democratic opposition could prove significant, as conservative Republicans were quick to push back against their leaders' proposal, arguing that it doesn't go far enough to derail Obama's 2010 healthcare law. 
 
 
 
 The push-back has forced GOP leaders, who are hoping to vote on a bill Tuesday, to reassess their strategy. 
 
 
 
 “I think we are putting some good steps toward something the House would be able to support before the end of the day,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), one of the conservatives wary of the initial package. 
 
 Unveiled Tuesday, Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE's new proposal mirrors an emerging Senate deal by raising the debt ceiling into February, opening the government immediately and extending funding until the middle of January. 
 
 But the House bill adds two amendments designed to win favor from conservatives. The first would delay a medical device tax that's helping to fund ObamaCare. The second would eliminate federal insurance subsidies for members of Congress and top Cabinet officials. 
 
 Asked Tuesday if the bill would win over any Democrats, Rep. Peter Welch Peter Francis WelchDem lawmaker apologizes after saying it's never been legal in US to force people to work for free Key House Dem: I don't want to 'punish' drug companies Overnight Health Care: Dems hit GOP with ObamaCare lawsuit vote | GOP seeks health care reboot after 2018 losses | House Dems aim for early victories on drug pricing | CDC declares lettuce e-coli outbreak over MORE (D-Vt.) didn't mince words. 
 
 "No way," he said. "What's happened is that Boehner made himself irrelevant by not participating in the discussions, so this is a last-ditch effort where once again he's catering to the Tea Party wing of the party. And it won't work." 
 
 — This story was first posted at 11:05 a.m. and has been updated. 
 
 ||||| The House's latest plan to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown won't pass the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidUFOs were not the only thing that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program was studying Warren to propose 'wealth tax' on those with more than M in assets Overnight Health Care: Trump calls for crackdown on surprise medical bills | Trump officials give religious exemption to foster care program | Uninsured rate at highest level since 2014 | Juul hires former Harry Reid chief of staff MORE (D-Nev.) said on Tuesday. [WATCH VIDEO] 
 
 “Introduction of this measure by House Republican leadership is unproductive and a waste of time,” Reid said. “the House legislation cannot and will not pass the Senate.” 
 
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 Senate leaders are working on a deal that would end the shutdown, fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt ceiling until February. 
 
 House Republicans met Tuesday morning to discuss preempting the Senate by passing their own plan to raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown. 
 
 The House bill would delay Obamacare's medical device tax and scrap healthcare subsidies for members of Congress and top Cabinet officials, among other provisions. Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE (R-Ohio) said no firm decisions about the plan have been made. 
 
 
 
 Reid said the bill is a non-starter even if Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE finds the votes he needs to pass it. 
 
 
 
 “It’s a plan to advance an extreme piece of legislation and its nothing but a blatant attack on bipartisanship. ... We felt blindsided by the news from the House." 
 
 "Everyone needs to know that the measure under discussion in the House is no part of what we have negotiated here in the Senate." 
 
 Reid has criticized linking the medical device tax to the budget plan as "stupid" idea. 
 
 A spokesman for Boehner questioned why Reid is unwilling to accept a delay of the tax, given the broad support among Senate Democrats for repealing it. 
 
 
 
 "Is Senator Reid so blinded by partisanship that he is willing to risk default on our debt to protect a 'pacemaker tax' that 34 Senate Democrats are on the record opposing, and he himself called 'stupid'?" Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. 
 
 
 
 Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainCriticism of Biden bipartisanship exactly what’s wrong with U.S. politics White House immigration agenda hurts Senate Republicans in 2020 Kamala Harris faces Democrats’ Rocky Mountain divide MORE criticized Democrats for their swift dismissal of the House legislation. 
 
 
 
 “I don’t understand that visceral reaction in a most negative fashion,” McCain said from the Senate floor. 
 
 
 
 McCain suggested that the House and Senate could both pass debt-ceiling bills and then go to conference to work out their differences. 
 
 
 
 “I believe it’s a good faith effort from the Speaker of the House,” McCain said. “Let’s stop the condemnation. Let’s consider the Republican House proposal as a serious proposal.” 
 
 — This story was last updated at 12:23 p.m. 
 
 ||||| (CNN) -- After 24 hectic hours, Congress was back where it started Tuesday night -- with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate near a deal to end to the U.S. budget standoff, while House Republicans can't agree among themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile the U.S. government is creeping closer to potentially defaulting on its debt, something the Treasury Department says will happen Thursday if there's no pact to hike the nation's borrowing limit. To this point, the Wall Street bond-rating firm Fitch has warned of a downgrade of gold-plated U.S. bonds, citing the default risk from "political brinkmanship." 
 
 The economic nightmare from the possible debt default could compound the pain tied to the ongoing partial government shutdown, which enters its 16th day on Wednesday. 
 
 The political bickering, and lack of progress, has been going on even longer. 
 
 What's changed in recent days is that, in the Senate at least, Democrats and Republicans are working together toward a resolution. Spokesmen for Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Mitch McConnell -- their chamber's majority leader and minority leader, respectively -- said Tuesday night that negotiations had restarted to create legislation to fully reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. 
 
 Senate staffers worked into the night drafting a framework bill, though no announcement is expected before Wednesday, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said. Still, the movement is clearly positive. 
 
 7 crazy side effects from the shutdown 
 
 "Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell ... are optimistic that an agreement is within reach," said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid. 
 
 And shortly after announcing around 10 p.m. Tuesday that the Senate was adjourning until noon Wednesday -- though this wouldn't preclude leaders from saying "something nice" before then to assuage financial markets, a Senate Democratic leadership aide said -- Reid sounded upbeat. 
 
 "We're in good shape," the Nevada Democrat said. 
 
 That optimism, as well as the bipartisan approach, is a far cry from what's happening in the House. 
 
 Sources said Tuesday that House Speaker John Boehner had been "struggling" to come up with enough votes among his own members for a GOP counterproposal to the Senate plan -- even though the Ohio Republican himself said "the idea of default is wrong." 
 
 Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, is among those Republicans who said he wouldn't back the measure being floated all day Tuesday, saying that it wouldn't get the 217 required votes to pass given that House Democrats have said they won't support it. 
 
 "There's no structural reform. There's no cost savings," he said. "It's just kick the can down the road another six weeks or two months." 
 
 And if the Senate does pass a bipartisan budget bill, it's no sure thing that legislation would pass the House, if GOP leaders even let it come up for a vote. 
 
 President Barack Obama -- who will meet Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew -- called for House Republicans to "do what's right" by reopening government and ensuring the United States can pay its bills, telling CNN affiliate WABC that "we don't have a lot of time." 
 
 Yet even he acknowledged Boehner's difficulty in getting his fellow House Republicans on the same page. 
 
 "(Boehner) negotiating with me isn't necessarily good for the extreme faction in his caucus," Obama told WABC. "It weakens him, so there have been repeated situations where we have agreements. Then he goes back, and it turns out that he can't control his caucus." 
 
 House GOP plan resisted on various fronts 
 
 According to multiple sources, the House plan would have called for funding the government through December 15 to end the partial shutdown. It also would increase the federal debt ceiling until February 7. 
 
 In addition, the House GOP version would've included a provision demanded by tea party conservatives prohibiting federal subsidies for the President, his administration's officials, members of Congress and their respective staffs to use toward purchasing health insurance under Obama's signature health care reforms. 
 
 Veterans rally against shutdown 
 
 Republicans dropped demands to include two other provisions related to Obamacare. One would have delayed a tax on medical devices proponents say is needed to help pay for the Affordable Care Act, and the other would have tightened income verification of those seeking subsidies to purchase health insurance. 
 
 The House proposal also would have forbidden the Treasury from taking what it calls extraordinary measures to prevent the federal government from defaulting as cash runs low, in effect requiring hard deadlines to extend the federal debt ceiling. 
 
 Two senior House GOP sources told CNN's Deirdre Walsh the House GOP counterproposal would have been passed in a way to let the Democratic-led Senate to strip provisions with a simple majority. Walsh and CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash explained that would make it harder for tea party conservatives such as GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to delay or derail the agreement. 
 
 Whether this GOP plan is dead or not isn't known. As he left the Capitol, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said only that there would be "no votes tonight. We'll see you in the morning." 
 
 But one thing, for sure, is that Democrats -- including the White House, which has rejected the House GOP effort -- would have nothing to do with it. 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called the proposal "a decision to default." And speaking on the Senate floor, Reid said, "Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate's bipartisan progress with a bill that can't pass the Senate." 
 
 Even Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said it was time to get a deal done after lengthy delays he blamed on the unrealistic goal set by GOP conservatives of gutting Obamacare. 
 
 "The fact is we've got to figure out a way to move ahead," he told CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday. "In fairness, on our side of the aisle, we've wasted two months, focused on something that was never going to happen." 
 
 Opinion: Republicans, stop living in fear 
 
 World watching Washington 
 
 The Senate is indeed moving ahead, with legislation that would give Republicans some concessions while overall being closer to what Obama and fellow Democrats have long pushed for regarding government funding and the debt ceiling. 
 
 The fight began when Republicans -- paced by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas -- insisted that they'd only allow the government to open fully into the start of the fiscal year October 1 with amendments to defund or delay Obamacare. 
 
 Alas, the only element of the Affordable Care Act that would change under the pending Senate deal is an anti-fraud provision requiring income verification for people getting federal subsidies, according to a Democratic source. 
 
 Proposed budget deal barely dents Obamacare 
 
 Even if a deal is finalized soon, that doesn't mean it will become law right away. 
 
 The earliest a vote might happen is late Thursday or in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, assuming Boehner sends a "message" allowing the Senate to expedite its vote. 
 
 If there's not unanimous consent by senators -- in other words, if a tea party conservative like Cruz has an issue -- a final vote would be pushed to Saturday, at the earliest. The delay for a final Senate vote could stretch seven to 10 days, if some chamber members throw up yet more procedural hurdles. 
 
 The prolonged legislative process, not to mention the threat of yet more stalemate, could wreak havoc in financial circles. 
 
 The partial shutdown has proved costly, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees are either idle at home or not being paid while working not to mention the costs of shuttered aid programs and closed parks. 
 
 And it's not just Americans who could be impacted without action to address the U.S. government's debt situation. 
 
 Jon Cunliffe, who will become the deputy governor of the Bank of England, told British lawmakers over the weekend that banks should begin planning for contingencies. 
 
 And officials warn that tough choices are ahead about which bills to pay and which to let slide, should the shutdown and debt ceiling debate drag on. 
 
 Even before the deadline, the stalemate was taking its toll. Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics told CNN's Christine Romans on Tuesday that the standoff has cost the economy about $20 billion in gross domestic product. GDP is a measure of the goods and services produced by an economy. 
 
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 CNN's Craig Broffman, Jason Hanna, Greg Clary, Mark Preston, Dan Merica, Brianna Keilar and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.
– House Republicans don't look ready to fall in behind Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell's plan to end the shutdown, and Democrats are lining up to take a swing at their effort. The House leadership today proposed an alternative plan that would include extra changes to ObamaCare, including a two-year delay on the tax on medical devices, and the elimination of federal subsidies for members of Congress and White House staff, the AP reports. "We think we've enhanced it in a number of ways," Darrell Issa tells the Washington Post, though he refused to say what Republicans would do if Democrats balked. And Democrats balked mightily. The White House quickly rejected the proposal as a "a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans," and insisted it would not pay a "ransom," the Hill reports. House Democratic leaders called the plan "irresponsible," and Harry Reid said it was a "waste of time" that "will not pass the Senate. Even before Democrats spoke, Boehner seemed to be distancing himself from the reports, telling reporters that House leadership has made "no decisions about what exactly we will do." He added that "there are a lot of opinions" among his caucus. The New York Times interpreted that as the House plan collapsing, and CNN reports that Boehner is "struggling" to find the votes for the proposal. But Politico's story indicates that there's still fight left in House leadership, with sources saying that they're considering voting on their proposal, then hightailing it out of Washington, leaving the Senate with two choices: Pass the House bill, or let the country default.