Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Mitch McConnell privately wants the White House to pay this price to enact a major budget deal: Significant changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and funding the government. Several people familiar with the high-stakes fiscal negotiations said the Senate majority leader's staff is trying to drive a hard bargain in the private talks with the White House and Democratic leaders. (Raju, 10/13)

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown stood in the corner of a Cleveland supermarket Tuesday and launched a broadside on the pharmaceutical industry. He argued prices for prescription drugs are out of control, and that the businesses responsible are offering scant justification for sudden increases. ... Brown made the appearance to push for a bill he is co-sponsoring -- The Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act -- to lower drug costs by giving Medicare the power to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors. (Ross, 10/13)

If Kevin McCarthy was Plan A, and a very resistant Paul Ryan is Plan B, House Republicans don’t currently have a viable Plan C to become their next speaker. The half-dozen or so Republicans seriously looking at running believe they can unite the warring GOP Conference. But most or all of them would face a serious challenge wooing the several dozen hard-line conservatives who don’t have the numbers to get one of their own in the No. 1 spot but have demonstrated that, if they stick together, they can veto other candidates. (French, 10/13)