Schumer says he'll try to get debt limit raised with simple majority vote, GOP vows to defeat effort

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he will try to bypass the legislative filibuster so that he and fellow Senate Democrats can increasing the country's borrowing limit – a move that brought immediately opposition from Republicans. 

The New York Democrat said he'll make a formal request later in the day, following Senate Republicans on Monday night blocking a House-passed government-funding/debt ceiling bill from getting the 60 votes needed to break a legislative filibuster.

Schumer said that he will ask the Senate for "unanimous consent," which sets up a vote on the debt-ceiling increase that can pass by a simple majority. That would allow Democrats to suspend the ceiling on their own, because Republican don't want to do that amid rising inflation and so much recent government spending.

The unanimous consent requests can also be nixed by opposition from just one Republican senator. 

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said Republicans will block Schumer's effort, according to The Hill newspaper.

"There is no universe in which I am going to consent to lower the the threshold and make it easier for him to do so. He’s playing games," he reportedly said. "The games aren’t going to work."

Fellow GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, also said that he would object, The Hill also reports.