workforce. reporter: but that leaves other measures in limbo, including two free years of community college and adding dental and vision coverage to medicare. there s going to have to be give on every side to get this done. and i think we do. reporter: as they haggled, washington drew one day closer to crisis as republicans continued to block democrats from quickly raising the nation s debt ceiling. that would require getting consent from every single republican. and i can t imagine that would happen. reporter: treasury secretary janet yellen warned today that defaulting could trigger a national recession. it would be catastrophic to not pay the government s bills. reporter: late today, the credit ratings agency moody s expressed confidence that the debt ceiling would get lifted in time, predicting that democrats will use aumsomehanismto ge don. but that is a precedent, norah, that they have not been eager to set. o donnell: yeah, the