House Republicans have scheduled a vote late today to increase the debt limit that is "doomed to fail" simply to prove a point,  according to reporter Jackie Calmes at the New York Times.  Senator Warner spoke to Calmes and also talked about his efforts to grapple with the nation’s $1.5 trillion deficit and $14 trillion debt with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today. Senator Warner  says partisan political brinksmanship and gamesmanship have no place in the current debate over the debt limit and the budget. 

“The people who are more politically savvy realize this may not be the normal brinkmanship,” Senator Warner said to the NYT. In addition, the standoff over the debt limit is not like the fight a few months ago over the fiscal year’s spending, which ended a few hours before the government would have been forced to shut down. 

“The thing that people are missing is that in shutting down the government you can go to the 11th-and-a-half hour, and the consequences of not doing it, while significant, are not economy-threatening,” Mr. Warner said. “You can’t go to the 11th-and-a-half hour on the debt limit. You don’t know what’s going to spook the bond markets.”