Congress’ holiday season theme of governing by crisis continues this
week, as lawmakers return to Washington to address what could be the
trickiest issue of the month: the debt ceiling.

House Democratic leaders have discussed adding a provision addressing
the debt ceiling to the final National Defense Authorization Act and
voting on it as soon as this week, according to a senior Democratic
aide. That’s assuming, of course, that compromise NDAA language is
ironed out between the two chambers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell has privately signaled to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that
he could go along with this idea, which would end their months-long
stalemate. 

But, there are serious questions about whether this defense-debt ceiling
sandwich could pass the House. And much of that is because of one man
who might typically be aligned with McConnell, but on this issue appears
opposed: Kevin McCarthy.

Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.