Senate Republicans were unable to muster enough votes Thursday for a bill opposing another $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.

The measure was defeated on a 52-44 vote. Lawmakers would have needed 60 votes in order to push the bill through, and more than that to override a presidential veto. The House had approved the measure last week, but it was expected to fail in the Senate.

The vote caps an unusual process set up at the end of the debt-ceiling debate last summer. The process allows lawmakers, mostly Republicans, to vote against debt increases but not actually block them. Blocking them would provoke a first-ever, market-rattling default on U.S. obligations.

The vote split mostly along party lines. One Republican, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, opposed the measure. Two Democrats -- West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson -- supported it.

Colorodo Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn is skipping Tuesday night's State of the Union speech in a protest of President Obama's policies over so-called recess appointments, rejection of the Keystone pipeline, deficit spending and "draconian" cuts to the defense budget that were negotiated in the debt ceiling deal last summer.

The three-term lawmaker said he has never passed on a presidential address to a joint session of Congress, but this year’s speech is different because President Obama is "in full campaign mode and will use the address as an opportunity to bash his political opponents"...

In its first real bit of business to mark the new year, the House passed a symbolic Republican measure against President Obama’s request to increase the federal debt limit by $1.2 trillion.

Last summer’s bipartisan debt and budget agreement allowed the White House to automatically raise the debt ceiling 15 days after the president officially notifies lawmakers that the government is close to the current $15.2 trillion cap. The administration’s request can be halted if both chambers of Congress agree.

The measure opposing raising the debt limit passed 239 to 176, largely along partisan lines. Six Democrats supported the measure, and only one Republican — House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California — rejected it. Two Republicans voted “present.”

But the measure is dead on arrival in the Democrat-run Senate. And even if it somehow clears both chambers, Mr. Obama would almost certainly veto it...

President Barack Obama has agreed to delay submitting a debt ceiling increase request until next month to allow lawmakers time to consider it while they are in session, the White House said on Friday.

Under an August deal between Obama's Democrats and the Republicans, Congress is unlikely to block the expected $1.2 trillion increase request, ensuring that the debt limit will not be reached again until after November's presidential election.

"We have been asked by the bicameral leadership of Congress to delay certification in order to give both houses time to consider when the votes may occur, given the current congressional schedule," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"The president has agreed to Congress' request to delay submission of the certification," Earnest told reporters in Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing with his family.

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama’s overall job approval in Gallup’s daily tracking poll is currently at 43 percent--which is within a point or two of where it has been for the past three weeks.

But his approval for how he is handling the federal budget deficit, according to a survey conducted Nov. 3-6, is only 26 percent, Gallup reported today.

That is the second lowest approval level that Obama has received during his term for his handling of the deficit. His lowest approval for handling the deficit was the 24 percent he received in a survey conducted Aug. 11-14, the last time Gallup polled on this question. That was less than two weeks after Obama signed legislation to increase the federal debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion...

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated at a press briefing Thursday that the House Republican leadership is not ruling out the possibility that it will support a balanced budget amendment that does not cap federal spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product or require a supermajority in Congress to increase taxes.

The legislation to increase the federal debt limit--that Boehner negotiated with President Barack Obama in August--requires both houses of Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment before the end of the year. However, the legislation does not specify what type of balanced budget amendment must be considered in that vote.

Conservative analysts have argued that an amendment to the Constitution that requires Congress to balance the federal budget but does not require Congress to limit federal spending to a set percentage of GDP or to muster supermajorities to raise taxes would be a formula for bigger government and higher taxes...

Democrats suggested Wednesday that too much has already been cut from non-defense spending to come up with $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, as sources offered a few details about a Democratic proposal to collect $1.3 trillion via tax hikes, stimulus spending and benefits cuts.

As a joint hearing concluded of the supercommittee tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in savings by Thanksgiving or facing automatic cuts on domestic spending and defense, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a member of the 12-person deficit-cutting panel, was vague about whether a Democratic offer had been proposed.

Offering conflicting responses, sources told Fox News that the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee chairman had thrown out a few numbers that roughly correspond to a reported $1.3 trillion proposal.

Another source told Fox News that the figure had been "batted around" but wouldn't really describe it as a full-blown proposal.

“America must also once and for all face up to entitlement reform. To preserve benefits for current and near-term Social Security beneficiaries, my plan permanently stops politicians from raiding the program's trust fund. Congressional IOUs are no substitute for workers' Social Security payments. We should use the federal Highway Trust Fund as a model for protecting the integrity of a pay-as-you-go system.”

-- Texas Gov.