Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, told NBC’s Meet the Press this morning that he will support House Republicans’ short-term stop-gap resolution to keep the government running. “I’m for it,” he said, calling the deliberations a “cause for optimism.”

Obstacles remain, however, for a long-term fiscal package. Schumer is willing to negotiate but will not endorse deep cuts — things that “cut into our seed corn.” Democrats, he said, want to wield a “smart, short scalpel, not a meat ax.” He challenged House Speaker John Boehner to build a “coalition” around legislation that could pass in both chambers. “We only have six months left,” he said. “We should get it done already.”

Oddly, Schumer referenced the tsunami in Japan as he explained his party’s “smart, short scalpel” approach. “Just parenthetically, the tsunami shows that as well,” he said. “We proposed cutting some earmarks out of the funding of [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], which has the regulation and watching-out for tsunamis. They cut so much out of NOAA, which funds the tsunami-warning center, that there would have to be furloughs there. So we are sticking to where we are at.”

Meanwhile, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, in an appearance on Fox News Sunday, warned that Democrats’ unwillingness to make a “credible effort” to address long-term fiscal problems will have consequences.

“I do not intend to support raising the debt ceiling, and I don’t believe any Senate Republicans do, unless we do something important related to spending and debt,” McConnell said. “It is going to have to carry something with it that the markets, foreign countries and the American people believe is a credible effort to get a handle on spending and the debt.”