The two-year budget deal Senate leadership is proposing has issues already. First and foremost, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has pointed out and based a three-hour floor speech on, there is no Dream Act (or a path to citizenship for Dreamers) included.
Secondly, it appears that the inclusion of a debt ceiling hike is up in the air. The Hill reports that it's not going to be included, while Politico's Jake Sherman is reporting that it is included. That suggests that it's an open issue and could be dependent on reaction in the House.
For their part, the House maniacs are revolting (in both the active and descriptive senses). FreedomWorks is calling it a "fiscal abomination" and Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling went off on how it hurts the national debt (which a $1.5 trillion tax giveaway did not?). Alabama Rep. Mo Broooks isn't just a no, he's a "hell no."
So both House and Senate Democrats need to step up here, because they've got the power to do so. They can come out of this with both a debt ceiling hike and a DACA solution because both Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan need their votes to make it happen. They still need Democratic votes to keep government open and to divert the potential global crisis posed by the U.S. defaulting on its debt.
They need Democrats to keep them from looking like the monsters they are, and saving the Dreamers from deportation. Republican leadership is as aware as Democrats where the national polling is on the issue, and they know that it's going to be an issue when we go to the polls in November. They're also paying attention to states like Missouri, and watching all these special elections go against them in some of the most unlikely places.
Leaving both the debt ceiling and Dreamers hanging is an invitation for disaster for both. Trump will use them, and he will have Republican support in doing so. Democrats can't let that happen.
Democrats are not without power in this calculation. They need to use it.