Congressional leaders are hatching a complicated plan to lift the debt limit this month with only Democratic votes in the Senate, three sources told NBC News.

The strategy, which remains fluid, is a product of negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that would tie it to a non-controversial Medicare bill.

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“I believe we’ve reached a solution to the debt ceiling issue that’s consistent with Republican views,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

Schumer said Democrats support this approach as it would not be a “convoluted, risky, lengthy process,” and he said it “looks like Republicans will help us facilitate that.”

The novel approach would tie debt limit provisions to legislation preventing automatic cuts to Medicare in a multi-vote process that would allow the federal government’s borrowing authority to be lifted with a simple majority in the 50-50 Senate.

The plan shifted on Tuesday after negotiators decided against an earlier idea of tying a debt limit increase to the $778 billion defense authorization bill. Instead, Congress plans to pass that separately. . . .

The scheme would require Congress to raise the debt limit by a specific dollar amount, rather than extend it to a certain date, two sources familiar with the plan said. Democrats would prefer to set an expiration date for the new extension, as Congress has done for years, instead of choosing a new debt limit figure. But Republicans want them to put a number on it . . .

(Excerpt from NBC News. Photo Credit: Getty Images.)