Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tim Kaine of Virginia have introduced legislation aimed at changing how the debt ceiling is raised, enabling the executive branch to initiate a process to raise the debt ceiling subject to a congressional override.  The Senators believe the legislation would help prevent political brinksmanship like that of standoffs in 2011 and 2013, when some in Congress threatened to force the United States to default on its debt unless separate political demands were met.  Senate Republicans are currently vowing to filibuster House-passed legislation that would raise the debt limit.  The two Senators say the idea of having the President increase the debt ceiling, subject to a vote of congressional disapproval, was originally proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2011 to allow a debt limit increase to go forward without requiring Republicans to take an affirmative vote.  McConnell’s proposal was incorporated into the Budget Control Act of 2011, which passed in August, and the two Democrat senators are looking to make the process permanent to end what they called using the debt ceiling as a “tool for political blackmail.”