Fat chance of it becoming law Two Democratic senators called on Congress to adopt a proposal that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made in 2011 to address a standoff over raising the debt ceiling, which would grant the president the authority to raise the limit on their own. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday that McConnell’s plan is simple and took the “weaponization of the debt ceiling off the table” during a battle over raising the debt limit more than a decade ago. The plan was included in the Budget Control Act of 2011, which ended an impasse between a Republican-led House with a Democratic-led Senate and then-President Obama. “While the broader Budget Control Act had numerous flaws, the McConnell plan itself was a good solution then, and it remains a good solution today,” Merkley and Kaine said. They said McConnell’s plan allowed Obama to raise the debt ceiling on his own while allowing Congress to pass a joint resolution to override that action if two-thirds of lawmakers wished to. They said this allowed Congress to continue to have oversight over raising the debt ceiling but prevented it from being used as a political tool. Merkley and Kaine said their Protect Our Credit Act of 2023, which they introduced this month along with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), would make McConnell’s plan from 2011 permanent. Under the legislation, Congress would only be allowed to prevent the president from raising the debt ceiling if two-thirds of members of the…