Why the Senate blinked ? and stepped back from the brink of a federal default - The Washington Post

…There was also another, unspoken reason for the punt: After Democrats had spent all of September bitterly divided over the shape of their domestic agenda — pitting liberals against moderates in increasingly messy clashes — the debt limit fight had united them in battle against Republicans' brazen demand: pass a necessary debt limit hike by yourselves, under a process we dictate, so we can attack you for it in next year's election…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/default-senate-deal/2021/10/07/222f9008-2779-11ec-8831-a31e7b3de188_story.html