THE HILL: GOP backs away from House debt-limit vote.

House Republicans are backing away from a tentative plan to vote Friday on raising the debt limit with a package of conservative reforms, leaving them without a clear path forward ahead of the looming Nov. 3 deadline.

The conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) had authored a proposal that would hike the debt limit into 2017, impose a freeze on new regulations, ban the Senate from filibustering spending bills after October and prevent either chamber from adjourning in September if they haven’t finished work on appropriations bills.

But GOP aides indicated Thursday that the bill is now unlikely to hit the floor this week. The RSC is comprised of about 170 members, which is short of the 218 votes needed to pass legislation.
One source said GOP centrists were objecting to a show-vote measure they believed had little chance of success, given opposition to the plan in the Senate.

With the RSC plan now on the shelf, it’s unclear what the House’s next move will be on the debt limit, with less than two weeks to go until the Treasury Department says the nation faces a potential default.

Either use it for leverage or give Obama a clean one and fight him elsewhere. Er, somewhere.