McCain: Democrats should understand: ‘What goes around, comes around’

Washington (CNN) – Sen. John McCain said Sunday that Democrats need to be careful in their talks with Republicans over the government shutdown and debt ceiling - because if they take advantage of the GOP, it may come back to bite them.

"The Democrats, they better understand something: What goes around, comes around. And if they try to humiliate Republicans, things change in American politics - and I know what it's like to be in the majority and in the minority - and it won't be forgotten. Now is the time to be magnanimous and sit down and get this thing done," McCain said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Democrats and Republicans really aren’t that far apart in negotiations, at least in the Senate.

"Sen. (Mitch) McConnell and Sen. (Harry) Reid both understood the gravity of default and that we had to avoid it. While I don't want to get into details, the frameworks they each had, we're not that far apart," Schumer said.

"With the President, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, there's a will. We now have to find a way. We know the House won't find a way, so it all rests on our shoulders."

Schumer said ultimately, while most House Republicans may not support any kind of deal negotiated in the Senate, the thinking is that bipartisan support in the Senate will lead to moderate Republicans siding with Democrats in the House.

"Speaker (John) Boehner can't lead,” Schumer said. “But if the Senate leads, I believe he could follow our lead."

McCain added that he’d like to see one more person at the negotiating table.

“Maybe we need to get (Vice President) Joe Biden out of the Witness Protection Program, because he has good relationships,” he said.

Biden, who served nearly four decades in the Senate, played a key role in the negotiations that led to a fiscal cliff deal at the beginning of the year. He's staying at Camp David during the holiday weekend.