By Craig Gilbert

Senate Republican Ron Johnson suggested Tuesday he’d be willing to support a very short-term deal to lift the debt ceiling in exchange for having an extended Senate debate on a GOP plan that goes to the House floor today to strictly cap federal spending.

 “Let’s pass a short-term deal for a month so we can talk about ‘Cut, Cap and Balance.’ … I think the American people would support it. Let’s give it a little time,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The “Cut, Cap and Balance Act” plan features sharp reductions in federal spending and a hard and permanent overall spending cap. It would make lifting the debt ceiling conditional on congressional passage of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.

House Republicans hope to pass it today, but it has little prospect of advancing in the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House has said it would veto it. 

Johnson told the Journal Sentinel Monday he doesn’t want the Senate to vote on lifting the debt ceiling until after it has spent a few weeks debating “Cut, Cap and Balance.”  

“I don’t really want to see the Senate take up ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ or a constitutional amendment until we have enough time to talk about it, debate and discuss it publicly. It needs a little time to garner public support,” Jojnson said. “I would hate to see a vote … too soon. The American people have barely heard about it.”

That would push action on the debt ceiling past the point where the White House says the U.S. would default. Johnson has expressed deep skepticism about those deadlines, and accused the administration exaggerating the potential economic fallout if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling.  

"It is time to draw a hard line in the sand and say unless we fix the problem, we should not increase the debt ceiling," Johnson said Monday on Fox Business Network. 

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