The worst nightmare of Senate staffers came true this morning, as Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that the Senate would not leave today on a 10 day break, and would be in session next week to try to advance a deal on the budget and debt limit.
"We'll do that, because we have work to do," said Reid on the Senate floor.
Reid peppered his announcement with a series of verbal jabs at Republicans, blaming them the failure to reach a deal on the debt limit.
"There's still so much work to do to put Americans back to work," Reid added.
Reid made the decision a day after President Obama criticized Congress for taking vacations and not sticking around in Washington, D.C. to cut a deal on the debt limit.
Republicans responded by inviting the President to come to Capitol Hill to hear from GOP lawmakers on why they won't accept tax increases, as Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell again made clear those plans won't be accepted by Republicans.
Meanwhile on the Senate floor, it was developing into a verbal food fight, as Senators from both sides touted their own ideas and denounced the other side on the debt limit issue.
That may just a preview of next week, as there seems to be little chance of real legislation being on the floor related to the debt limit and budget.
Democrats today were denouncing tax breaks for corporate jets, yacht owners, horse racing and more - Republicans were on the floor ridiculing the idea of any tax increases.
As for next week's schedule change, some freshmen GOP Senators had demanded the extra work week - along with some Democrats - arguing that now was not the time for vacation.
Of course, if you look back at the Senate's work schedule in recent months, you could find a lot of wasted work days along the way, as Senators have been working Tuesday-Thursday the last couple of weeks.
In fact, it has been a month since the Senate had votes on four days of a work week - that happened twice in May.
The big question is - will anything get done next week with the Senate in session?
The initial review from the Press Gallery was - probably not - especially since negotiations have been on hold for the last week on the debt limit.
Even if a deal was somehow produced (magically) today, it might not be ready for a vote next week, because of all the legislative work that would be needed to make that deal into a real bill.
And again - right now, no negotiations are scheduled.
But the verbal food fight is underway.
