I think McConnell and McCarthy have learned that voters blame Republicans for this instead of Democrats, and the debt ceiling standoff around May just hammered that in further. The plurality believed Republicans were at fault for the whole thing.

It’s likely savvy of Republican leadership to avoid another self inflicted crisis like this, especially since House Republicans can’t even pass a 100% Republican bill for starting negotiations.

And as usual, Trump felt left out, and now he’s advocating they take the worst option and insisting that Dems will be blamed instead. I suspect enough House Republicans know he’s full of shit to take this as confirmation they’re going to be the ones who get the blame.