The Hill News

The debt ceiling will be increased through a short-term deal because the so-called Gang of Six plan won't be ready by Aug. 2, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said.

"I think we're going to get the debt ceiling raised," Hatch said on Fox Business Network on Friday. "It will probably be on a temporary basis, because the Gang of Six approach has got everybody up in an uproar right now. People don't know what it means. It's basically an outline. There are a number of significant questions. We're a long way from having that done and I don't think we can get that done by August 2nd. I suspect there will be a short-term debt limit lift. And I'm certainly for that."

Hatch's comments come as an increasing number of Republican and Democratic senators voice support for the so-called Gang of Six $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan even as a number of senators caution that the plan will probably not be ready by the Aug. 2 deadline, when the Treasury Department project! s the the economy will default unless the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling is raised.

On Thursday, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a member of the Gang of Six, voiced support for a six-month increase to the debt ceiling.

"You know, I've always believed that there will be first a shorter-term extension. I would prefer one that's perhaps six months in duration so that you start the process â€" you begin with a down payment, then you have time for the committees of Congress to come back with a floor package," Conrad said MSNBC. "That's my own view of how this should work, and I think it's more in tune with the realities of the magnitude o! f the task."

Watch Hatch below.