Just as the House Republicans are starting to relent on calls from their InsaniTEA wing to shut down the government, the Senate Republicans are picking up with hostage taking where the House Republicans left off. The most bought Senator in history announced that all Republican Senators will vote against raising the debt ceiling unless there are cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements.

In the next couple months, the Treasury Department predicts the U.S. will hit “D-Day,” the day the debt reaches the $14.3 trillion ceiling. The reality of the impending deadline has forced some Republican lawmakers to drop their “showdown” showboating for a more sober position on the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) admitted that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be “a financial disaster” and send the country “into a tailspin.” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said such a failure is “unworkable” because “obviously, you can’t default.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put it more bluntly, stating that this position would “bring collapse and calamity around the world.”

But after backing away from decimating the nation’s economic future, Republicans have now decided to ratchet up the pressure and the take it hostage. A whole host of Republican lawmakers are now angling to use the debt ceiling as leverage to enact severe cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other saftey [sic] net programs . Today on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised his entire caucus would vote against raisin the debt ceiling unless the White House agrees to cut entitlements…

…Watch it:

If there is any question about Senate Republicans’ intentions, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) swiftly put it to bed. The “debt ceiling vote is ultimate leverage to get fiscal reform,” he tweeted yesterday. Failure to raise the debt ceiling would not only likely result in a government shutdown and weaker financial markets, and — as Center For American Progress’s David Min points out — higher interest costs on U.S. debt would ultimately make the long-term budget situation “even more problematic.”… [emphasis added]